I've Been Through The Sewers on a Slime With No Name

"I'm sorry, Now I really have to go see a man about a slime."

Due to a cultural misunderstanding, the American Adventurers back at the Inn are still waiting for Uta to come back from her bathroom break, but the point is, she meant it literally. In fact, she's now headed down the sewers of Alne with Setsuna, as agreed, and a small group of adventurers who have followed her all the way here.

"Hi Setsuna!", she greets once she climbs down one of the ropes that leads into the sewers of Carmina Gadelica, this particular one located at the outskirts of town. "At least, I hope you're here. My eyes still have to adjust to the darkness."

She leaps off the rope once she's reached the bottom, and rubs her eyes. "Hope you brought your monster hunting equipment. As promised, if you manage this stunt, there's some career advancement waiting for you."

Yeowang has agreed to join Uta for this hunt. Being a hunter, you'd think she'd be a natural, but she is not confident in her hunting skills. Her fighting skills, in the real world, were national level, at least, but her hunting skills were zero, and she's not adjusting well. And she's having to learn the skills the game says she has. That's part of why her advancement has been so slow.

She nods to Uta and Setsuna when Uta calls a greeting, she at least knows Uta, and also not being American, she was not subject to that cultural misuunderstanding. For light, she has a glowing sphere held aloft in one hand.

    Setsuna had been in the middle of some of the many other things he gets up to when he got a call from Uta to come to Carmina Gadelica to go walking through the sewers. Sadly these sewers are not like Mac Anu's sewers, those sewers are much nicer. Either way he is here and as Uta speaks up, " Well that is my job, slime acquistion and management , so I suppose I should do some acquisitions. " At the mention of eyes adjusting he tosses out some harmless magic light spell that seems to hover over there location. " So then why come all the way here for slimes though, I mean you have plenty, even that one you swore was limited edition rare spawn slime 'Slimie the Slime'. "

5R
    Wynfei has been hanging around Carmina for a few days, moving about and helping where he could or just exploring. Though when hearing about Uta needing help and well he was apart of the Hunters Guild, he decided too offer what assistance he could. It wasn't like he had any pressing matters to attend to. Upon making it to the meeting place he waves, "Hello everyone."

    Mizuki may be American but she also knows Uta, somewhat. Uta obviously actually meant something about a slime.

    And if she didn't, it's not weird for girls to go to the bathroom in packs, right? In case of random encounters, obviously...

    She's actually followed Uta for several seconds before piping up, "Wait, everyone uses the menu for that! So this definitely *is* about a slime..."

    When they get there, she looks down the sewer entrance. "Still full of poporings as ever, I bet. We should pick up more anti-toxin herbs while we're here." She climbs down the rope, and then looks out into the sewer. "Ugh... I need to be a were fang to see better, but it stinks and I don't wanna step in that water... hhhh..." She detransforms before hopping off the rope, equipping her pirate armor set. She slumps a bit upon realizing her hair is still long and everywhere and probably going to get the ends wet. Maybe she should've asked an actual girl how to braid it or something... But are there even any here? She glances over Yeowang. Now's not the time...
    She smiles at the light, though. "Thanks. I forget how hard it is to see without cat eyes."

    She looks around.

    And then looks to Uta. "Wait, so what *exactly* are we here to do, again?"

"Thanks, Setsuna." Uta expresses her gratitude as the small magical light source illuminates the area in front of her.

"All sewers in Root Towns, and, oddly enough, Alne, are incredibly smooth and clean. Alv magic and slash or sufficiently advanced technology. Who knows." She frowns. "Hey, do not knock Slimie the Slime. One, it /is/ limited edition, though I'm not entierely sure it can technically be called a 'spawn' anymore, after what we've lernt from Estelle about the Green Moon. Second..." Uta gives Setsuna a disapproval glance, "...you're just jealoust because it's been elected Employee of the Month, aren't you? You need to be less negative towards your colleagues. I think I will have to sign you up for a sensitivity training."

Uta turns to Mizuki. "...not everyone uses the menu, Mizuki" Uta comments, not without some embarrassment. "I try to whenever I can. But there are a few rare times when- no, no, now is not the time to go on a medical lecture about the physiology of the fear reflex. Especially the part about lessons learnt the hard way," Uta mumbles, with a shake of her head.

"Hello, Yeowang and Wynfei!", Uta greets, and promptly spins on one heel, to give her back to the others. She holds one hand in the other, behind her back, as she straightens and even arches her back forward for a moment. "You may be wondering why I've gathered you here." Well, Mizuki and Setsuna have asked explicitly, but we'll let this slide. "Today, we are not just 'hunting slimes'. Today we are hunting /one/ slime."

She turns, Dramatic Chipmunk style. "A /mount-sized/ slime."

Cue grin.

Were this an anime, one could see a glint in her eye, with the mandatory chime.

    Setsuna looks at the others for a moment before looking back at Uta for a long moment, " How would you... wouldn't that... " Taking a deep breath he considers for a moment before asking, " Uta, are you trying to dress up as a jello mold with fruit in it for halloween. There are better ways. " Taking a moment he looks around as if to wait for confirmation before finally adding, " Ok then well if we are doing this lead the way. "

Yeowang looks over to Mizuki curiously, returning her glance curiously. Her own quite-long hair is, in fact, done up in a loose bun atop her head, gathered in by a small leather cord, which she normally does before duties and when she expects to be active, though it's worn loose most of the time. She nods to Wynfei's greeting, and will scan the surroundings for slimesign, that is, signs that slimes have been here.

She nods to Uta about hunting slimes, and nods also about about hunting a slime mount. "So, larger than most slimes?" she checks. It -is- Uta, it could be anything from a poporing-sized mount for ten-inch tall characers to a horse-sized slime, which would certainly be much larger than average, to house-sized, because Uta is more about enthusiasm than sense, sometimes.

    Mizuki claps her hands over her mouth when Uta admits that. She's not hiding laughter, she looks appropriately sympathetically horrified, and then pats Uta's shoulder while staring into the distance. "It's fine. We all had to deal with... stuff." The exchange leaves her slightly depressed-looking, though. Ugh, she hopes there's something to fight soon so she can think about that instead of... confusing things.

    And then Uta explans she's here for a mount, and Mizuki...'s eyes light up and she gasps excitedly with fists under her chin exactly the way you'd expect someone who looks like she does to! "Oh my gosh, that's wonderful Uta!" She points 'forward' dramatically. "We'll get you your slime mount! Just tell us anything we need to know about catching it!"

"Shadow Festival," Uta corrects Setsuna. "It's called Shadow Festival, not Halloween, and it probably- hey, that'd be the coolest costume ever!" She squints sideways at Setsuna, "But no. No, that's not what I'm looking for. I literally want to use it as a mount. I'm having a special saddle custom made and all."

"From sheep sized up to grunty sized will do," Uta comments in response to Yeowang as she walks further, staff clutched tightly in her hands. "We don't want /too big/ a slime. We need one that's large, but reasonably low level. Easily killed in an emergency if things go pear-shaped," she says. "I am going to feed a metaphorical forbidden pear to this particular slime, so a killswitch is in order."

"Here is everything we need to do, Mizuki!", Uta replies, all business. "Step one, let the actual Monster Catcher deal with it." She nudges her head towards Setsuna. "Step two, we take it back to the Slime Lab. Step three- wait, the capturing part is over at that point. I can stop."

As she says so, she literally stops walking. And looks each way, at an intersection. "Okay, which way now..." She sniffs the air. "...YUCK!", she exclaims, doubling over with a grimace and clamping her hands over her nose, wings stiffening in disgust. "That was a terrible idea. A...anyone else knows how to track down a large slime?"

    Wynfei takes a moment to scan each person who is here then he looks over to Uta as she describes what's going on. He nods, "This should be fun." he smiles. His tail waves slightly behiind him as he bounces on the balls of his feet. He waves to those who look at him, and he gives a confident grin, "Well I know some of you, Uta mainly, I apologize if I don't remember the otehrs. My name is Wynfei, nice to meet you all and let's get sliming." he makes a bad joke.

Yeowang nods to Uta as she describes the slime she's seeking. "Small enough that it's not too high-level," she agrees. "That should make it easier to tame." She examines the ground, and clicks a couple things on her menu, and finally says, "I -think- a few slimes have been this way recently. This one seems about right..."

And so she will lead the way carefully through the sewers, in search of slimes. Leonard Nimoy would sigh.

    Mizuki retains the cheerful expression when reminded that ah yes, ~~Halloween~~ Shadow Festival is coming up! And now she can dress as a cute witch!

    And then slumps. Is that really something she should be happy about...

    She looks to Uta. "A metaphorical pear? What are you going to do? ...And I more of meant, how exactly are we going to find it?"

    Uta smells something she wishes she hadn't. Yeah, Mizuki's not going were fang mode right now... "Ah... so we're not here after a specific monster you heard was in this sewer, you just figured it was a good place to find a large slime. Okay..."

    She turns after Wynfei's introduction, smiling brightly, "And I'm Mizuki! Nice to work alongside you!"

    And then she looks at Wynfei. "It's alright. We won't get slimed as long as we don't say 'I don't know'."

    Setsuna looks over at where Yeowang is pointing as his eyes glow with his magical tracker cheating spell, " Yeah. I Think you are right . " The magic would fade eventually but for now it helps him follow along. "So who is making this saddle for you? Same person who made you your gloves?" Looking over at Wynfei as they move along and gives a very short greeting, " Setsuna."

"I actually borrowed my gloves from Rylen. I don't know who made them for him," Uta explains. "He told me to have a full monster hunting outfit made, and then enchanted, as part of his lessons. I'll probably do the same with the Saddle. Oh, that reminds me!"

She flicks through her menu, and with a shimmer, her opera gloves are soon replaced by a pair of less fancy, but very practical leather gloves. "Gotta be ready."

"Indeed, Mizuki. Just a nice place to find large slimes. I saw a few last time I was here, but I wasn't after those specifically. Oh, also, it's very important that it must not be morphologically directed already. We want a 'clean slate' one, because we're going to feed it-"

She turns to Mizuki, and grins. "Wyvern samples! I've heard there are /flying/ wyverns on the Seventh floor of the tower, but they are very aggressive and pretty much impossible to tame. Not to mention, powerful. BUT, as far as we know, it's the first time we've found an actual flying monster that lives in our own neck of the woods. Soooo..." Her eyes glimmer with excitement. "...I'm getting myself a flying mount!" She blinks, turns around, and in mild panic, she adds, "F-For the advancement of Science, of course! N-not because it's way beyond cool. Of course. It's s-serious science."

Yeowang's lead turns out to be correct: there /is/ a large slime in the larger chamber the adventurers have just entered. Alas, it was squatting on some sort of elevated structure, and, probably disturbed by Mizuki's speaking, it leaps down straight for her!

    "Monster-hunting gloves? What do they do?" Mizuki asks, assuming they're a magic item and not just to stop Uta from taking slime damage. And then she gives another excited gaso as Uta reveals her plans for a flying mount. "That's so cool!" She holds out a thumbs-up and smirks. "Way past cool, Ut!"

    And then, despite a tiny voice in the back of her head warning it's tempting fate, she responds to Wynfei by saying

  "It's alright. We won't get slimed as long as we don't say 'I don't know'."  

                                 * S L I M E *                                  

    Mizuki is slimed. First: It feels gross. A split-second later, she realizes what happened and starts flailing wildly, transforming and swinging claws around for what good it does her!

Yeowang arches her brow and asks Uta, "You mean the first flying monster /other than birds/ and whatever other animals that normally fly?" So, birds, really. Or bugs, or flying squirrels, maybe? But then she's leading the way into what's not another water-collection chamber, or if it is one, it's been usurpsed by the great slime. "Heads-up," she says, standing ready. And then Mizuki is slimed. Well, she could maybe have been faster on the warning. Her chimlink is blowing up and she's having to work hard to ignore it.

    Setsuna looks at Mizuki witha questioning look for a moment about the whole thing, " I don't know what you..." He never gets to finish his sentence as Mizuki is slimed. Taking a jump back he stares at the slime and the floating Mizuki. " Ok just a reminder for those who haven't done this before. We need to weaken the slime, not kill it." As if to demonstrate Setsuna unleashes a torrent of magical lightning strikes to hit the slime, Mizuki being electricuted may or may not be a thing. "Uta is this one big enough?"

Once the fight seems to have been joined, she quickly takes action, using one of the magical powers that gives her so much trouble. It's a spell to freeze the target, so the text explains, but she's not terribly confident of what it does or how it works, but it seems like it ought to help in this situation? If the slime's defenses are down, then it's easier to do things to it, right? So, she does a few things in her menu, points at the slime, and activates Frost Shock.

Surprisingly, to her, it seems to have been executed correctly, and a rime of ice begins to form as the frost sets in.

"Uh, monster-/handling/ gloves, actually. The way I understand it, they need to be magical to keep me from taking slime damage." She thinks for a moment, "Or... any other kind of monster damag-EEEP!"

Uta goes into full fight mode now! She turns to Setsuna, and exclaims, "Yes! That one works! And indeed," she adds, turning to the rest of the team, "we must /weaken/ and then /capture/ it. No killing it. This is particularly important for the hunter types. We don't want drops. We want it alive."

Uta intones a chant, her staff lights up in different colors at different spots, in sync with the pitch and intensity, and soon a multicolor beam shoots from the gem at its top towards the slime.

The combined attack of the team slowly dock its HP, and make it more and more uncomfortable. "Hopefully it'll throw up before digesting enough of Mizuki -- we want a /neutral/ slime, not an Eddga one!"

After a moment of pondering, she adds, "Oh, and of course, before Mizuki suffers too much! That goes without saying!", she says, keeping an eye on her friend's HP bar, which is getting drained by the second.

"I meant flying monsters large enough to be workable rides," Uta explains. "...Uh, which reminds me. Speaking of Wyverns..." She turns to Setsuna. "I was researching flight in general in the library, and apparently, a mysterious noble donated a book which contains a fairy tale about the 'Wyvern Riders' of 'Londonia'. I found it interesting that there are tales about such things."

    Mizuki does actually feel a bit bad about the risk of the slime taking after her before it can become winged ^._.^ But as her HP drains and flailing DOESN'T get her released, she starts to get concerned. This would be such a dumb way to die! She could try to explode her way out but doesn't want to kill the slime either... So instead, she starts breathing out a slow, controlled flame and heating herself up, trying to make the slime uncomfortable enough to expel her without boiling too much of its body!

            How about some heartburn, you overgrown bowl of jell-o!            

    (She has to think the line rather than say it because she needs to conserve what little air is still in her lungs for fire breath. It's not like anyone else would hear it anyway...)

                               * S P L O R C H *                                

    Mizuki is expelled, landing on hands and knees in front of the party sucking in breaths of air. Water-resistant armor does nothing against being eNgUlFeD iN sLiMe. It's her face that looks the most pathetic -- honestly, the clothes help prevent her from looking as bad as a soaked cat would, since there's less exposed slicked-to-body fur.

    And then she realizes she's taking in big breaths of sewer air while her nose is super-sensitive. Euuuugh... She looks like she's about to puke, but doesn't... She scrambles on all fours to get behind *someone* so she can have a moment to recover, then stands up and de-transforms. "I'm starting to hate sewers..."

Yeowang will gather Mizuki in as she gets ejected from the slime, and will attempt to help her. Sadly, her attempts to help are a confused mixture of real-world sports medicine and the character interface. She manages to trigger a heal, but it heals a spot off to the side, and the attempts to check real-world medical things don't have analogues in game, so it's a lot of attention for no actual help, sadly.

    Setsuna looks over at Uta for the mention of the book, " I will trade. Wyvern samples and remains that I collected for you from the boss fight in exchange for access to that book. " Yes Setsuna is completely distracted as the others weaken the thing. " Now we just need to get out of here so I can get my boo... I mean so Uta can get her mount." Drawing forth a two foot long weapon with a spear head fixed to the top, and the rest a long intricate handle, as if it was suppose to be a spear handle shortened to be a long dagger or short sword. Without even waiting he charges and stabs the blade into the slime as people would be able to see a rather rare status, though oddly the more Setsuna is around the more it appears, 'IMMOBILIZED'.

    Yeowang attempts to give first aid. Mizuki sweatdrops. "I didn't break a bone, I was *being digested*. First you throw me in the emergency shower, then... I dunno, there's probably some kind of ointment for burns, or a mild base to help neutralize the acid. But things don't work that way in here. I'll be fine... it just feels... iCkY..." She shivers.

Uta turns to Setsuna. "...Deal!"

Then he rushes over to capture the monster, and when the status effect appears-- she stares. "How did you... wait!"

Upon /finally/ realizing that Mizuki has been regurgitated, Uta does not lose a moment: she rushes over to her, full of concern, "Mizuki! Are you okay?" Seeing her friend in distress, she forgets about the slime completely -- instead, she materializes some herbs and flasks out of her menu, and begins mixing and using her mortar like crazy.

In less than a minute, she has some sort of smooth cream ready. "Here, take this!" she says, extending it towards her. "It's specifically meant to react with slime acid -- which will form the last ingredient to make it a skin-soothing balm. Curiously, it also happens to double as fur conditioner. And perfume. And anti-aging cream. It's quite a versatile concoction. If you are a were fang. Which I am not. Anyway, the pressure of fingers might be too much in your current state, so-" Uta flicks her menu open again, and what she shimmers into existence is... a brush? Like, the kind one uses to paint walls?

It indeed is: Uta dips it into the balm, and begins to (gently) 'paint' cream all over Mizuki.

It feels soothing and refreshing.

    Setsuna waits a moment as he watches the status of the slime before he moves to the next part. "Ashes and bones, spirits and souls, form to this creature and bind to it's soul. " As he chants magical energy wraps around the Necromancer before he slams his hand on the ground. In response bones of minions come from the ground and create a sorta of spider like structure that comes down on the slime like some form of game machine claw. The bones seem to nestle in nicely to the slime, slightly to big for the slime to absorb. There is the evidence in the status that the monster is 'Handled'. "Ok so thats done. " Looking at Mizuki he tilts his head, " Mizuki, are you ok ? Did something get you? You look like you went three rounds in a washing machine. " Yes Setsuna appears to be oblivious to what happened to poor Mizuki.

    Mizuki is startled by Uta suddenly fawning over her. "But wait, your slime! I, I'm fine! It's just HP damage, it'll heal!" Once it's clear that Uta will not be deterred, though, Mizuki re-transforms and changes equipment to the 'leather pants' armor (it's more of a bikini when equipped by females) to expose as much fur as possible. She still doesn't look as bad as one would expect from a slimed cat, though, since her underlying shape is mostly human, rather than fur drastically altering her outline. It does show that she has dark reddish-brown stripes on her arms and one continuous stripe runs down her back vertically with short, horizontal stripes spaced every few inches which only reach out a few inches to each side. Much like a very stylized, minimalistic drawing of a tabby's stripe pattern brought to life.

    She appears to find this somewhat awkward and uncomfortable but isn't as extremely embarassed as one might expect. Medical aid is necessary, not embarassing!

    Actually, her mood and expression brightens as not only does the cream feel soothing and refreshing, but as it reacts with the slime she no longer has to feel slimy. That gets her smiling slightly and tail twitching. Although whenever Uta's 'painting' nears what's still covered by armor she blushes extremely awkwardly and takes the brush, turning her back to handle that part herself before turning around again and returning it, mood once more deflated until she starts feeling good again.

    Why did it have to be sLiMe that gets EvErYwHeRe...

    To Setsuna she just replies, with resigned frustration, "I said the magic words and got slimed. Now Uta's fixing it. Did you uh... capture the slime okay?"

Yeowang looks relieved as Uta takes over doing first aid for Mizuki. Which is good because she doesn't seem to have the feel for it. The game confuses her on so many things. But she looks over, and Since Setsuna is taking care of the slime and Uta is taking care of Mizuki, that everything is covered, and she will look around to make sure that there's no last-minute surprises.

No last minute surprises! Unless you count that... when Mizuki will try to give back the brush, she'll find that Uta has turned away from her: she's all engrossed in the large slime mount. "Ooooooooooh..."

The Spriggan hesitates. She extends her arm, then retracts it. Extends again, while taking one step forward. And another. And another, arm still outstretched, yet reluctant.

She turns to Setsuna, "Can... Can I try riding it?", she asks, failing to keep her voice steady despite the excitement. Yes, the thrill of exhilaration is not only audible, but visible in her posture: just one word, and she's ready to leap atop the bobby creature.

    Setsuna looks at the giant slime, and then at Uta, and then at the sewer tunnels and considers that question for a long , long . long moment before saying. " Lets wait till we are at least in the open air. All we need is for you to ride it in to a low ceilng. " It goes unmentioned that at the moment it would be more like one of those pony rides at the fair, where the pony would be led by the handler. Looking at the others he asks the question, " Who is done with sewers today?"

    So that's what a ninja kitty looks like with fur slimed against her body. Whatever developer put 'leather pants' in the game probably swears it's supposed to be 'flattering', but only the first syllable applies here. Really, between that and the cat face, there's only the voice and just enough slight curve to hips to make her even read as female... All things considered, it's probably for the best... Still, as soon as they're someplace dry she's covering back up, dammit.

    Mizuki briefly looks frustrated when Uta's turned away, but smiles to see her interested in the slime as she should be and continues applying the medicine herself. Suddenly she realizes that her lack of enthusiasm towards Yeowang and Uta may be read as unappreciative and speaks up, "Ah, thanks for helping, both of you!"

    She looks between Uta and the slime curiously. "Just how *does* one mount a slime, anyway?" There's nothing to grab onto... do they just jump...?

    Mizuki loudly announces "I AM VERY DONE WIH SEWERS YES." In response to Setsuna.

Yeowang makes a dismissive gesture to Mizuki. "I'm just glad you're OK," she says. "Sorry I couldn't get the healing thing to work. It's a thing I'm supposed to have, but I'm not very good with it." She also wonders about riding slimes, and looks to Uta to see what the answer may be. Though she suggests, "We may want to clear out before more slimes show up."

"I AM DONE WITH SEWERS TOO," Uta announces. "For today. LET'S BREAK THIS BABY IN!", she exclaims, looking at her Goo Pony. Goony? No, that name is already taken, even if spelled differently. "The sooner we get out of low ceiling ,the better it is. Gotta get used to it, first, and then, once I got the hang of it..." she leaps from foot to foot now, while waving her forearms, hands balled in a fist. "...flying wyvern slime mount! It's going to be /so/ amazing" She turns to look over her shoulder, at her own back. "/You/ may be useless..." she says, and gives her own wings a flick, as to emphasize just /what/ that was directed to, "...but /you/..." she extends her arms towards the slime. "You are going to be my ticket to the sky... soon...", she beams.

"...that's it, I agree. Let's all head to the surface. Dinner for everyone. I'm treating. Oh- and by the way, Setsuna..." She turns towards the necromancer. "Congratulations! You've just earned your promotion from partially paid intern to fully paid intern! And you're the next Employee of the Month. You've deserved this!"

    "Aww, thanks!" Mizuki thanks Yeowang for the concern. "It's alright. Maybe you just need to find the right activation method, have you tried casting healing spells by incant?"

    She's happy to see Uta so happy, though! She never thought about how much it must suck to have useless wings...

    Once it's decided that they're leaving, she wonders, holding her thumb and forefinger to her chin: "...How are you gonna get the slime up the rope?"