I slowly crept towards the alcove, wary of any nasty surprises. I assumed that the massive boar was the last of its defenses, but I knew nothing about how the dungeons of this world opperrated, so I was not taking any chances. As I cautiously made my way forward, I realized I could hear a frantic voice. The words it spoke gave me a fairly strong indication of who it belonged to.

(You have to do something! It’s coming closer!)

I heard nothing more for a moment before the same voice continued. (There’s really nothing left?! Oh no, oh no, oh no, you shouldn’t have emptied your whole resource pool into that Boss!)

Another gap, and then the voice went on. (I mean, I guess, I don’t know! The intruder was stronger than either of us thought! What do we do, what do we do…) In the meantime, I kept my slow advance, not stopping for a second. Objectively I realized that I might look terrifying. A huge mass of slime ominously creeping up to its target, unblockable, unstoppable. I appreciated the aesthetic, honestly.

Optics aside, I realized that I was hearing the voice of the dungeon fairy. The gaps in speech must be a result of me not being able to hear the dungeon core responding. I wondered why I could not hear this core when I had no trouble hearing the voice of the one that made me. Perhaps I could hear Malevin because it had made me, and therefore I was connected to its thoughts that way? It would make sense, I supposed. If I were a normal dungeon mob, the core would have needed to be able to direct me properly. The core in front of me, however, had no part in my creation, and so I reasoned that I would have no way of communicating with it...except through its partner fairy. Does this mean that fairies in this world act as a sort of diplomat? A bridge between the stone and the living creatures they seek to consume?

Once I had that thought, I happened to further realize that I had no idea what dungeon cores are made of. My creator...when I consumed it, I did not pay too much attention to exactly what it was. Crushing it with mana inside of my body made it shatter like glass, but I highly doubted that it was actually a floating ball of glass. That would just be ridiculous.

Then again, the whole idea of me becoming a sentient slime monster in a whole other universe after dying is ridiculous in and of itself.

As I got closer to the core, I took the chance to observe it in detail. It floated a few inches above a pedestal that grew out of the floor of the alcove. For a dungeon that hosted an entire meadow of tusked pigs, the aesthetics of the alcove looked fairly out of place. It was clean, well shaped, smooth, and faintly detailed with artistic markings. They did not appear to hold any meaning beyond looking appealing. It was not what I would have expected at all. Malevin, for example, had floated on its own in the center of its room, not surrounded by any sort of artsy craft.

Either Malevin was simply a boring fellow, or this core was more vain than average. Maybe a bit of both.

The core came into proper view. It had the basic shape of a sphere, but there were clearly several facets on it. It did not look completely even though. An imperfect polygonal sphere? I am fairly certain that made no sense at all, but that was the best way I could describe it. A stray thread of thought pierced my mind, a slight memory of a dungeon core novel I read long ago. It mentioned something about a core becoming ‘more perfect’ as it grew in strength. Maybe that is what happens here; as a dungeon gets stronger, the core clears up its surface and becomes a perfectly faceted shape. I may need to find more powerful cores to verify this.

(Please, please just go away…) The fairy continued to whisper, not knowing that I could hear it just fine. I did not pause my approach, but I did start to wonder. Did I need to consume them? Yes, they would give me a boost, but is that truly important? When I destroyed that first core and fairy, it was mostly out of self defense. Either I died or they did. Here, though, I am the intruder. I entered their domain, their home, and slaughtered all of their defenses. Assuming the core does not have any other tricks up its figurative sleeve, these two are simply helpless. Was I the sort of person to hurt defenseless people?

That is the thing though. I am no longer a person. And the core and fairy before me are not people either. At the very least, they are not “my” people. Even then, I did effectively cause a genocide when I massacered my fellow slimes...but truly, they were yet another part of the dungeon that wanted my destruction, so I felt no regret there.

All in all, I had no reason to break this core and swallow the fairy. Yet, I had no reason not to do so either. And to be completely honest with myself, I had no strong emotion towards either action.

In the end, one thing tipped the scales. Power. I had no idea what brought me into this world, or how I ended up in this body. I knew nothing about why my emotions were sealed, or removed, or whatever the case may be. I lacked knowledge of what my status as a disaster meant or how the world at large would react to it, beyond the terrified response that the other fairy gave me. I did not know what kind of life I would be able to live here, in this unfamiliar world. But no matter what mystery I try to focus on, the path to getting those answers all begin with one simple step.

Grow stronger. Amass power. Bring myself to a point where I can do what I want and determine my own fate.

And if I want to gain that freedom to choose then it would be foolish of me to pass up the meal in front of me.

I suddenly lunged forward in a burst of speed, my body resembling an ocean wave crashing upon the shore. I engulfed both core and fairy at once and wrapped my body into itself, trapping them both. My mana circulated wildly, assaulting them together in an attempt to end it quickly. I did not want to give them any opportunity to defend themselves.

My attack immediately met resistance from the core. A series of pulses ripped through me, the core unleashing wave after wave of its own internal mana. I briefly wondered where it pulled this much mana from, considering that it was supposed to be running on empty after creating the boar boss, but then I quickly suspected that it was a combined effort with the fairy granting assistance. It was their last stand, a valiant effort to prevent their destruction. It mattered not. My own mana was significantly higher than what they could put out. Their method was a bit clever, though. Releasing their mana in pulses did make my body weaken its hold on them briefly, but I ignored the instability. Wielding my mana like a primitive hammer, I struck vicious blows onto the core.

It did not take long before the pulses weakened and slowed, until they stopped altogether. Even with the help of the fairy, the amount of mana they held combined could not last long. They quickly ran out before any real damage could be done to me. My attacks, on the other hand, continued unabated. Soon after their final struggle passed, I succeeded in shattering the core. With the fairy in such close proximity, her death was triggered at the same time. The resulting burst of mana surged within me. This time I felt myself expanding as the mana integrated with my body. Once again I got that sensation of near satisfaction, maybe that is the way my body processes growth. The sensation did not last long, as usual, but the feeling of my body expanding lasted a little while longer.

Finally, I finished with my growth. Beyond my size, I could not determine any other changes. In fact, I wondered about those blue screens I saw much earlier. Should there not be some measure of my strength? I took a few moments to think of different trigger words. Status. Attributes. Character Sheet. Boss Page. Slime Force. I stopped before I allowed myself to get too crazy with the attempts, but nothing I tried so far worked. Strange. I was under the impression that I would be able to track my progress, as the blue screens mentioned an elevated status and all. Was I missing something?

Just as I was about to lose myself in the bookcase of thoughts that I have been shelving for hours now, one thing stopped me cold. A voice. I somehow failed to keep track of my surroundings and something snuck close enough for me to hear it.

All of a sudden, I had company.