Duty Session 270: Is It Wrong to Pick Up Slimes in a Dungeon?

A simple rope barrier, a sign that warns people against using this water.

A rope descends down into the system of tunnels below, infested with slimes, Yamato's plague upon the supply of drinking water; colorful monsters which, despite cute smiles and round expressive , eyes nobody in their right mind likes them.

"Oh man, do I /LOVE/ slimes!", exclaims a cheerful spriggan which has just climbed down the rope, skipping around in excitement. "Hopefully I'll manage to get me some interesting samples! Maybe one large enough to work as a mount..."

"Samples?" A hint of interest piques Michio's voice as the Salamander lands at the bottom of the well in a 'superhero-pose', crouching down with his fist touching the ground. Looking towards Uta he inclines his head to one side, looking the spriggan up and down. "Do the slimes have medicinal, or perhaps alchemical uses?"

     "I know, right? Slimes are great, they're easy to fight, they're cute, and they react well to the powers of darkness." Comments another person who was already down there in the sewers. "Welcome to the dark sewer of destruction, housing the most dangerous slimes this side of Yamato." Demonrose Honami says, her tone overthetop cheerful and yet clearly trying to sound edgy and dark and possibly a little evil? "I am the Demon Rose of the Forgotten legion of the Scrapped Princesses, Demonrose Honami!" She introduces herself, doing a flourish that unleashes a wave of black petals that... quickly get washed away by sewer water. And probably eaten by slimes. She might have been feeding the slimes while waiting. It's fine. Probably. If they meet a supergiant slime it's totally not her fault.

Yeowang doesn't so much like slimes, but she likes getting rewarded for quests, and there is a quest reward for this one, so she follows Uta down the rope, navigating that easily enough. Her long hair is fastened in a loose bun so it doesn't drag through slime, and she looks around as she reaches the bottom, nodding to Michio as well. To Uta, she considers advising caution around the slimes, but doesn't. It'd be a waste of breath. She peers sidelong at Honami, then does an inspect, manners be damned. "Are you a player or an opponent?" she asks flat out. This game is so strange.....

"They have alchemical properties. Acid. You can make, for instance, poison with them. Nobody has invented batteries yet, but-"

Uta's eyes grow wiiiiiiiiiiide. "...sec." She flicks her menu open; a leather-bound notebook and a pencil appear. She scribbles something down, tongue sticking out, and de-materializes the items again with a shimmer; shimmer which is replaced by a much more elongated one, which resolves into a staff.

She bows to the rest of the group, "Uta Furore, Aerialist, Chairspriggan for Life of the Royal Society for the Appreciation and Study of Gelatinous Creatures. Pleased to meet yo- wait."

She blinks at Demonrose. "...Uh? The Scrapped Princess war was, like, 400 years ago?" She glances at Yeowang. "...good question..." She turns back to Demonrose, "Are you..." She flicks the menu open, and navigates through the options (which, to other people, will look like her flicking her fingers through thin air -- menus are not visible to other players).

"...According to inspection, you're an Adventurer? Adventurer are not supposed to- oooooh.." She comments, as she notices a basic, unspecialized slime eating black rose petals and morphing accordingly into a Black Rose Slime. "Oooooooooooooooh..."

She squats down in a 'kid-peeking-at-a-bug' pose.

...The squatting doesn't last long, though. Most experienced players will be familiar with the 'bloop' sound that slimes make as they move.

"What is this I hear? The sound of happiness?"

She darts up almost immediately after squatting, and darts towards the rest of the sewers.

Just beyond the entrance to the sewers, this sound becomes louder. Where light is shown, it reflects on greenish colored slimes which seem to be gathered around a waste disposal site. They are attracted to food discarded by the Landers. The green poporings bounce against the walls, then against each other, wandering around seemingly aimlessly as they occasionally bounce into a bit of food which is absorbed into them with a 'slurping' sound. They don't seem to be paying the Adventurer's much mind, but they are in the way.

"...Time to perform some SCIENCE. Tactile examination!"

...She rushes to try and pet the slimes.

"I am..." Michio begins as he steps to the side, avoiding a slime falling onto his head. "Michio Asa." His hands are folded behind his back and he pirouettes casually out of the way of another slime, before leaning back just enough for two slimes to collide. Thankfully they don't seem to merge into a bigger slime. This time. "Ki Master. Pleased to meet you all." He nods to Yeowang, "Again, as the case may be." He watches Uta move to pet the slimes and for the time being merely watches in a detached way.

     "...Eh. It depends who you ask, I mean. I am with the scale emblem, after all. I, uh... uhm... s-sorry I get into the act a lot." Honami says, her cheeks flushing a little pink with embarrassment. She is, in fact, a player, and from the scale emblem order, and her job title is HOWLING ARROW in spite of the fact she is clearly carrying a massive two-handed greatsword.
     "...Yes that's why it's the forgotten legion of the scrapped princesses. Also I'm the only remnant left." Honami responds to Uta, flashing a grin towards her. And then Uta gets distracted by the slimes. And actually Honami steps closer to the Black Rose Slime as well, reaching to poke at it a couple times with a finger. Which, of course, burns, so she quickly pulls her hand back with a soft. "Tss." And steps back and stands up again, sucking on her finger. "Right, still a slime." She mutters under her breath to herself.
     Bloop. Bloop. Bloop. "Oh. Hey. Poporings. Cute." Honami commants as she starts to just... casually walking through them, occasionally using her sword to deflect an odd poporing that comes too close to her without harming it. They weren't aggressive mobs so there wasn't much need to attack them. "A pleasure, Michio!" Honami comments as she slips through the slimes with an absent little hum, humming some song or another under her breath. "Ki master, huh? So you specialize in hand to hand sword artes then? That's good~. I'm darkness specced myself." She dips her head into a bow towards Michio.

Yeowang nods to Michio, introducing herself to the party as, "Yeowang," again, in Michio's case. She looks totally baffled, but then asks Honami, "You're a ... roleplayer, then?" She, herself, clearly doesn't have any concept of roleplaying. Yeowang is not sure about Uta sometimes, either. Not that she's not clearly a player, she is, but as to what she does, Yeowang is often confused in this game. Yeowang has zero background in gaming, though, as an excuse. This is all entirely new to her. For instance, the slimes. They don't seem like a threat, and Uta investigating them doesn't seem like something you'd do if they were, for instance, rabid lions or hungry tigers. Which is why she proceeds along and since they're not paying her much mind, she ignores them.

Which of course is a mistake. When they drop on her from above, or block her path and approach her, and then OWWWWW, and she's got to broken-field-run, getting slimed and her HP trickles downward unpleasantly.

Uta keeps petting the slimes, and... somehow seems not to get hurt. In addition to that, she manages to gently lead them out of the way as she does so."A roleplayer? I've heard of people who do that!", she exclaims, bolting up all of a sudden. "I've heard of people who acted out their character!" She looks away and mumbles. "...sounds like it might have been fun if I had been around when this was just a game..." She thinks further, then mumbles, "...and got to make a proper character..."

Deeper into the sewers, the water seems to run dry, leaving only bare stone beneath the Adventurer's feet. The sound of slimes grows louder, echoing through the halls. A pride of what look to be Hunter Slimes stalk through the tunnels, quiet growls followed by the 'boing' of slime movement. They stop, sniffing the air, then turn in the direction of the Adventurers. There are small alcoves that could be used for those who want to hide, or the travelers could try to scare them off. For those clever enough, though, the hunters may become the hunted.

"My focus is how the ki moves through the body." Michio responds to Honami's query. "And how to transfer it from one body to another..."

In order to demonstrate this last, Michio steps over to Yeowang and extends a softly glowing hand over some of the places touched by slime. As the light shines, the burns fade, and Yeowang's HP bar begins to creep slowly back up.

"There are many applications. I am studying a technique to disrupt the flow of ki in an opponent. Some day, I would also like to learn how to draw the ki out of an enemy and into myself. It is all about balance and flow."

Apparently the conversation has him somewhat distracted, as his overall contribution to the progress of the party is minimal, and he exactly fails to use his hunting skills to any productive end, prattling on, "I also study both pharmacology and alchemy. There are many things which have both positive and negative uses. For example, an acidic property most people would only think of burning, but there are some alkalines that are so strong they can cause harm, and the acid would neutralize them."

     "...Yeah I guess!" Honami responds honestly towards Yeowang, flashing a cheery smile towards him. "I used Elder Tale Online to help me practice stuff for my book and it just, y'know, became a habit whenever I'm 'her'?" She shrugs helplessly as she continues through those poporing. She pauses as Yeowang gets chunked by the slimes, she quickly steps back to Yeowang's side, using her greatsword as a shield as she stands next to her to help deflect any more hits. "Hey, careful. Poporings aren't aggressive mobs but if you end up in their way they'll 'attack you' by just incidentally hitting you when jumping." She pulls out a healing potion and holds it out to Yeowang as they continue. Yep. This is the destroyer of the world, the bringer of darkness. Caring for her pick up group party member.
     "...You didn't get to make a proper character, Uta? That's unfortunate. Did you randomize or something and just went with what you had?" Honami asks towards her with a small frown. Hmm. That sounds unfortunate. And like the girl hadn't been given enough time to enjoy the game. A part of her wants to go hug Uta. But the rest of her was focused on helping Yeowang get through the monsters.
     Speaking of monsters, that boing. The sniffing at the air. "...We're being hunted." Honami comments to herself, stepping away from Yeowang's side. And slipping into a lower position, unequipping her greatsword and equipping a horned bow, which she nocks several frog crotch arrows to to deal slashing damage. She starts to release them, taking out the hunting slimes before they can start hunting THEM.
     "Ooh, so actually closer to wave artes than sword artes... that's fun. I probably won't actually get to show it off too much here because it's not a dungeon with a lot of things weak to darkness, but I have overwhelming amounts of dark power~." She says cheerfully. "As for non-combat skills, I have Accessory Forging, Appraisal, Negotiation, and Scripture."

Yeowang sighs as Michio demonstrates his healing skills on her. "Thank you," she says, and she looks around much more warily as we proceed, declining Honami's healing potion, since she's been healed by Michio. "Thank you, though. So I see," she agrees. The Hunter Slimes are now viewed much more skeptically, and she breaks away from Michio, warning him, "They seem to sense motion." She, herself, remains utterly still, even her breathing seems halted, or at least very shallow, and then when a slime gets close, she suddenly kicks it hard. It flies into a wall, where it splatters. She then freezes again, waiting for more slimes to slither by at unawares.

"Yup, joined for the highly advertised new year's expansion. Complete newbie at computer gaming. Not sure of how anything worked. Hit the random button for everything. Got trapped hours later during that exact same session."

"Oh, I've developed that technique, Michio!", Uta replies to the Ki Master. "A technique I call Parasitic Link. Extract life force from of the opponent, absorb it within yourself. Eat it up like roly-poly fish heads. Yum." She thinks a little. "Maybe I can teach it to you some time or other..."

"It's a common trait of monsters," she explains to Yeowang. "They just act on their instincts, and for slimes, well, their base instinct is feeding. If you happen to be in the way-"

Uta goes wide eyed at the slime being smashed into a wall soccer-style. Her eyes glaze up, her lower lip quivers, but she says nothing. These are, after all, monsters, and adventurers are here to clean up the sewers, after all...

The sewers open to a sort of central collection area, with a deeper well of water in the center. It seems relatively clean here, suggesting it is part of the regular water sources that feed into Alne, rather than the sewage system. However, this area seems to have been taken over by floating slimes with tiny, adorable mage hats in a variety of colors. Now and again, they shoot magic, either at one another or off into the darkness of the tunnels. Unusually, there are a series of runes on the walls of the chamber.

Uta sneaks her way around the slimes, and steps into the new chamber. "Ah, so we meet again, Slime Hogwarts... interesting. There seems to be one in every slime-infested sewer..."

Upon entering the latest chamber, Michio tilts his head to one side and frowns, closely examining the runes on the walls. He tugs a chain that hangs around his neck and withdraws a strange pendant from beneath his gi. As he holds the pendant up to his eye it begins moving and rotating until several rings protrude, almost like a telescope. A soft humming series of notes can be heard coming from the object as Michio steps close to the runes.

Something cool seems just about to happen, when suddenly the object flares bright white. The sudden light clearly blinds Michio, who drops the pendant to hang back around his neck (where it returns to a simple medallion).

One hand comes up to Michio's eye as he staggers about blindly for a moment, cursing, "Kuso, kuso, kuso!"

Yeowang made Uta cry? She blinks, confused, then shrugs it off. This game is so wildly confusing, she's never sure of what to do. Do we fight monsters, or no? But she'll follow along, into a new chamber, much wider and with standing water, and there are slimecasters now. Do we fight these?

She can't find a route to get there, and wading in the slimewater seems like such a bad plan, so she will use her limited magical powers to ... well, technically, she's moving physically closer, but without interacting with the terrain. She steps out of a shadow behind a slime and kicks it very hard. Sliding back into the shadows, she'll slink over to another slimewizard, and that one gets a kicking, also.

     Honami didn't seem too upset when her potions were refused, after all there was a proper healer present. Something she couldn't do at all beyond through potions. She gives a small smile towards Yeowang. "Haven't encountered slimes much, huh? They're cute little monsters, huh? Still dangerous at times though." She says, continuing on forward calmly after the hunter slimes are dealt with.
     Meanwhile, poor Uta. "Oh no... randomized /everything? That's awful. I hope you're at least enjoying the game in spite of that... I just did a body scan so Honami is more or less me with some... aesthetic ... changes." Like her hair. And her clothes. And ... other things. And then they continue towards the 'slime hogwarts' where she... just... glances around towards the mage slimes. "...Adorable." She mumbles under her breath. Not obsessed like Uta, but slimes /are/ adorable!
     "...Whelp, time to get through them." She lifts her hands and begins to gather energy and dash towards them, dark magic starting to gather around as she flashes forward... and... dark energy is gathered around her. Soon, there was a rush of dark energy in an area burst. Boom~. It was ... not great for poor Uta to see probably. Poor thing.

Uta observes Michio's telescopic pendant with interst.

Until, that is, she's blinded with SUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY.

She covers her eyes and stumbles aeound in the dark.

Her temporarily being blinded probably works well, because this is when Demonrose lays waste upon the iconic four houses of slimes (Gryffinblob, Ravengloop, Huffleplort, and Slipperin')

After some stumbling around (and bumping into walls), She shakes her head, rubs her amber eyes again, and blinks. "Uh. That was pretty cool. Is your pendant a relic?"

Uta begins then to intone a song, and her staff lights up in different colors at differnt points, according to the pitch and intensity of the song. Vibratos make the light grow and decrease in intensity, portamentos make it slide. When the melody culminates into the finale, a beam of light departs, hitting the slimes, and together with Yeowang's kicking 'em -- their comined efforts bring their numbers down to zero.

The confines of the sewer seem to become closer the further down the party travels. Areas of clean water give way, replaced with liquid that seems to almost have a reflective, oily sheen on the surface. There are small pockets of the water that seem to be burning, always burning, making it hard to wade through. After a time, the passage opens into a cistern of sorts, filled with tainted water that seems to have been stuck here since the slimes began their invasion of the waterways. At the center of the chamber is a round looking ooze in a deep, reddish color, giant yellow eyes peering out from its bulbous face. A massive mouth opens wide, as if screaming in horror, but no sound comes out other than the 'blub-blub' of slime motion. However, this jelly seems to be the source of the flames, as little flickers rise up, belched from deep within. If not careful, it might just set the whole chamber aflame.

Rubbing the last of the blindness out of his eye, Michio nods to Uta, "Yeah. It's never done /that/ before though. Normally it just helps me decipher runes and codes and such." He blinks a couple times and looks around, noticing the oily slick on the water.

"I am about over this place, not gonna lie." He lifts up one hand, palm facing the large, flaming, cinnamon jelly beasty thing. A darkness envelops his hand, and a similar glow begins to dampen the light of the jelly's fires, and as Michio squeezes his green-scaled fist and makes a downward striking motion, the darkness surrounding the red jelly pulses as well, pulling off a chunk of the foe's health bar.

Yeowang looks pleased with herself at the kicking she gave the previous slimes. She'll follow the group down to the area where the clean water gives way to yuck, and then a place where there's burning water. Alas, she's not familiar with Cleveland except by reputation.

Yeowang is at first not sure how to deal with the strange, fiery slime. But she knows a bit about firefighting, and based on that, she'll shovel dirt onto the slime to try and bury it, and or the flames. The slime is strange, but enough dirt does seem to squelch the flames a bit.

     It was probably lucky for uta, because that blast of dark energy took Harry Blorper out too. The slime who lived no longer lives. Well. Until he respawns at any rate. Still, as they continued and found themselves going into the part of the sewer where the fiery poops go apparently. "Honestly this place isn't too bad, really clean for a sewer... probably because of the slimes I guess?" Honami comments idly towards Michio as she continues forward.
     She looks towards the fiery slime, tapping her lip. Hm. Fire. You put fire out with water. She switches back to her greatsword, etching several runes along its length that begin to glow blue. She lifts her sword over her head, before swinging it down into a slam on the ground, unleashing a wave of water towards the oily slime! ... ... Unfortunately, something Honami evidently didn't know. Is that you don't use water on oil fires. And the slime just burned hotter for her efforts. Whoops.

"Relics seem to hold hints about the history and future of this world," Uta mentions to Michio. "You might want to look for Estelle. She is researching them, and -- hey, have you had it appraised already? The flavour text usually is pretty interesting."

Uta sings another song, this time darker and more oppressive, and this time the flashes of light from earlier are replaced by blobs of darkness, darkness which ends up, once again, in a blast directed at the jelly. This, combined with the other Adventurers' efforts, makes it shatter.

"Oh, yes! Please let me be your tour guide to the sewers of Yamato! I've been touring them a lot!" Uta clears her throat and begins, "The absolutely best sewers in Yamato are found in Root Town. Probably because of the Alv's magic, they look absolutely modern! Well, okay, not metal piping mordern, but the walls, they are so smooth.. and everything is so clean and beautiful. In a /sewer/. Expansive, large canals...." She trails off and loses focus, then snaps back to attention. "Same thing ina Alne. Then there is the Fourland Dukedom, most notable for having sewers otuside Root Cities. Those are medieval in style. Some of them pretty sizable. Or so I've heard. I'd like to visit them, some time or other..."

The cistern empties into a large circular chamber with a high, arched ceiling. It is hard to imagine something this huge being underneath the city, but there are many unknowns about Alne. Suddenly, in one quick movement, a massive looking slime descends from above and lands with a 'splat', the giant pink body wiggling in the center of the chamber. Rocks fall from the ceiling along with it, suggesting that part of the roof might be unstable. The boss appears to be a large poring, with a scar across its face. It wears a red coat with puffy white lining and sports an impressive looking moustache. Various weapons from other adventurers stick out from it. A single, golden crown sits atop the monster's bulbous head.

Michio dodges a falling rock as he enters the room, and it seems to give him something of an idea. Looking up at the ceiling, then at King Poring, the verdant salamander smirks, "Hey, King Boring..."

He then throws his arms out behind him and bows at the waist, and begins running around the room. Each time he turns directions there's a soft sonic boom left in his wake. Michio stops periodically to wait for King Poring to pounce at him, then quickly dodges again and again, trying to cause rocks to fall from the ceiling and onto the royal flan.

Yeowang does a double-take as the Victorian-looking giant poring with a scar and a red coat descends, with a crown on its head. "I never understand this place," she says with a sigh. She, too, avoids the falling rocks, and advances, using her best moves from RL, where she was a Mixed Martial Arts champion. She's finally got some of that training back in this new virtual environment - it took so long, but it was worth it when she delivers a brutal kick to the King Poring and drops a respectable chunk of it's HP.

The kick, itself, is pretty brutal, delivered with a leaping advance, and a whole-body rotation to develop hitting power, and then her boot slams into the Poring with a wet splat. It does not, in fact, leave a mark, but it looks like maybe it should.

     Ooh. Dark and oppressive music. "Yeah I noticed that. The sewer levels are all weirdly clean. You'd think they'd make them have at least a bit of dirt and grime, even if it's not, like... /that/." Honami comments as she thinks on that. And then she continues on. "In Alne... that surprises me a little, but that town is ... strange ... in general." She muses out loud as she continues... and then... SPLAT. The giant pink body. The king slime. She looks over this scarred, stabbed king. And she just... grins. A dark, wicked grin as she shifts her hold, letting the flat side of her greatsword drag along the ground, leaving a trail of black petals in her wake as she gets low, her blade beginning to 'glow' black, soon she's right up to the king slime, drawing herself back into a leap that sends her backwards, bringing the sword up! That blunt side using the momentum to slice INTO the side of the king slime, leaving a large gash right over that scar.
     Followed by her gripping the sword in both hands in an overhead position, dashing into that gash to bring her sword down a second time. This time straight towards the slime 'core' of the king slime, as she intones darkly, "Heartseeker." And ... flashes through to the other side of the slime, mysteriously, in a trail of flower petals that leaves her on the other side. "Return to darkness." She lifts her great sword, flinging it to the side and flicking ...black liquid? onto the floor. Followed by the second attack's damage actually /hitting/ in the form of a glowing slash and shockwave through the slime's center.

"That's a pretty good idea," comments Uta, noticing what Michio is doing: she leaps all over the place around the slime king. Left, right, up, down, she's as erratic as a fly as the blob tries to hit her, but finds nothing in her place. Lightning-powered fists punch the gelatinous creature- they /punch/ it. Yes. Not pet. Punch. No, really. They punch it. Honest.

Demonrose's Dark Arts (with petals and all) temporarily distract Uta from her battle -- it might be a bit showy, but that doesn't prevent Uta from enjoying it. "Lolve the black petals. Nice aesthetic! And the dripping dark liquid..."

The combined efforts of the party, once again, push the monster's HP bar down to /almost/ zero...

...when a slab detaches from the ceiling, and deals the coup de grace to the final boss. With a dying roar (a very gurgly one), the slime splatters into a shockwave of pink goo, which washes over everyone.

Hopefully, all that pink will wash off the party's outfits...

Yeowang winces at the wave of pink goo as the boss despawns. "Yuck," she sighs, wiping her face clear, as much as she can. Blonde hair and white blouse, though, are both entirely pink now, and the clothes, at least, are probably beyond the hope of soap. Luckily, for tough stains, there's menu-clean. She looks over the tarnished jewel, plunks it into her inventory, and runs the menu-clean half a dozen times. It still doesn't -feel- clean, though.

As the slab of stone squashes the giant slime, Michio notices a tarnished gem roll across the chamber. He stops his frantic running around and steps on the jewel. He picks it up, buffs it on his gi, then stuffs it into a pocket with a satisfied grunt. "Thank you all for the journey. Do not hesitate to call me in the future for duties." He offers a casual bow to all, then turns to Uta. "You mentioned teaching me an arte. Please feel free to contact me via chimlink and we can discuss this further, yes?"

Next he speaks to Yeowang, "Thank you for once again journeying with me. Likely we will meet again in the near future."

Finally he addresses Honami, "It was pleasant to meet you. Your technique is most interesting. Until next time."

     Was Honami a little disappointed that a slab got the last hit? Maybe. She doesn't show it though. Instead turning towards Uta and grinning. "I know right? Honami is actually supposed to be an anti-hero/overpowered villain sort that actually isn't necessarily that bad once things get down to it like. She's trying to take over and destroy the world! But actually it's like. For good reasons. To rebuild it and make a lovely world and stuff!" She gives a quick nod. "...It's a bit more complex than that but y'know whatever it's fine." She giggles. And then... the wave of pink goo! ...Doesn't really make her look anything other than make the grey bits look slightly darker. It's fine though. Not a problem.
     "Yeah, feel free to call on me too~." She responds to Michio, flashing a grin as she waves towards him. Carefully pocketing her own tarnished (And probably slightly cracked considering she stabbed it...) jewel. "I always enjoy new techniques. Until next time~."

Uta just stands there, covered in goo and suddenly looking very very pink (yes, her outfit was white before).

She blinks, removes the goop from her face, inhales, and then exclaims... "Now. Anyone of you can capture monsters? I'm trying to capture a generic, plan, not-yet-morphologically-directed base slime for... uh... science. Yes. Science."

"Oh. You're leaving? Aw, pity. Hope to see you again soon... sec..."

She sends Michio a friend invite.

"Oh, I like Honami. She's interesting. And I've never seen a roleplayer up close before. It's going to be a very educational experience!"

Yeowang bows her head to Michio. "It was good to work with you again," she replies. "Hopefully your good luck continues." Honami gets more confused look. "Destroying the world would be bad. I live there, and do not want my home desotroyed." As the rebuilding plan is explained, she says, "So, you /don't/ want to destroy it, but to rebuild it better. /That's/ not a bad thing. But by characterizing it negatively, you're generating opposition where it doesn't need to be." Uta draws a further confused look, and she offers, "I do not think I can help you much."

Looking thoughtful for a moment, Michio nods, "Well, actually... I might be able to be of some assistance there. Perhaps in exchange for you teaching me that siphoning arte?"

"Deal!", exclaims Uta. "Let's head off to a side room, then, and keep looking for an appropriate slime!"

* * *

Soon after, there it is. A small slime the size of a large slime, bulbous and transparent, is minding its own business, where by 'minding its own business' we actually mean polluting the city's water supplies.

Hidden behind a corner of the sewer system, Uta peeks out points at the monster. "I think that one will do."

Yeowang, though she had said she couldn't help much, will still tag along with Uta and Michio, as much out of curiosity as anything, She's not sure what exactly is going on, but she's not going to learn by ignoring it. She does hang back, to watch Uta watching the slime. "What will it do for?" she asks Uta quietly.

"Yes..." Michio inquires hesitantly, "You seem overly enthusiastic about these creatures. You're not planning on putting one in someone's bathtub or something, are you?" he frowns, then glances briefly around the corner at the slime, then back out, thinking carefully.

Michio looks around the corner, then at the two ladies, "Okay... I think I got this..." Reaching into a pouch, Michio takes a bit of ration from his pocket he takes a little bite of it, then holds it out towards the slime. "Hey little... critter." he sounds unsure if it's male or female.

"Are you hungry? You want some ration?" As Michio watches the slime, the slime watches Michio. Their eyes meet, and Michio begins to slow down his speech. In fact, he stops moving altogether, and a bit of drool escapes the corner of his lips. "Blip blorp is my master... My master is blip blorp. I must serve... the master..."

Yeowang is hanging back, but can sort of fathom what's going on. "So, you're trying to capture the slime? For whatever reason?" That's the part she's -most- unclear on. But when Michio is mind-controlled by the slime, she will ... she's not sure about some of her kind of magic abilities. Like this one, she's not sure how or what exactly she's doing, but she casts a circle of flame around the slime. It's held in place, and can't go anywhere, the height of the pillar of flame preventing it from escaping upward also.

So, it looks like the slime is captured. Unfortunately, it also looks like the slime is on fire. So, score one for not thinking it through.

Uta stares. "That... that might have been a mistake." She sighs, and heads over to perform a medical procedure of mental clarity restoration known as 'percussive awakening'.

Because that staff is not only used for casting magic, you know?