“I’m so booooreeed, wanna play a game?” the question reached Apexus’ ears as he slowly shifted out of unconsciousness. Although he heard the words, he wasn’t really able to make sense of it. The part of his core that was tasked with listening comprehension hadn’t quite woken up yet. Instead, he only slowly got control of his senses one by one.

First to awaken was the most fundamental sense the slime had, being its tremor location. The water running over it made the sense pretty unreliable, everything outside its direct surroundings was as if observed through multiple layers of tinted glass. The second most valued sense followed soon after, being the slime’s tasting. Not that there was much to taste, just the faint sweetness of magic-infused water.

Beginning to move, Apexus carefully stretched his feathers. His right wing felt numb and was tugged uncomfortably underneath him. Oddly angled, the other was partly drenched and partly dry. Also an unpleasant feeling.

“I think he is waking up,” yet more words that his ears picked up but his nucleus refused to decipher just yet. At least he identified the voice as Aclysia’s, wherever he was, he was clearly not in danger. Otherwise, the metal fairy wouldn’t sound that relaxed.

“Sure he is, it’s totally not him just moving in his sleep again,” the other voice he realized as Reysha’s. “Anyway, I spy with my little eye something that is-“

“Is it black and called the sky?”

“Dammit!”

“We ran out of subject to guess at a while ago… No, I am certain he is awakening.”

Apexus opened his eyes and closed them again immediately. They were awfully dry, despite the overabundance of water around him, so he clenched his eyelids in hope that it would change. Opening them just minuscule gap again, there was a giant silver light that caused the squinting slime to want and keep them closed. However, if he ever wanted to see, he had to get adjusted to the light, so he blinked his way back to his eyes working, at some point along that process, his thoughts also started working again – his hearing with it.

“Apexus!” the happy voice reached his ears as he crawled out of the water. A moment later, most of his vision was blocked by moth-like wings and the body of a small person, but big fairy. Aclysia was hugging his face dearly. “Are you okay? Do you need to be healed? Have you slept well?”

A series of questions that he forgot for a second he could actually answer. Well, if he remembered how to use his voice again. “I hungry…” he stopped when his previously deep and pleasant voice sounded oddly sick and dull. After a moment, he realized that the wood was so soaked with water that it caused the reverberations to sound odd.

He stretched his body into a very steep curve, increasing the gaps between the plates until they became visible. Part of the water begun running out. A couple of testing sounds, not words just notes, informed the slime that he hadn’t cleaned his vocal plate thoroughly enough. As a next measure, he pulled together like a worm on the move. This put pressure on the middle plates, pressing yet more water out of them. After repeating both motions a couple of times, the slime finally had dried the wood enough that he sounded close to the deep tone he wanted to address them with.

“I hungry… I AM hungry. Don’t need healing. Don’t think sleep was particularly… good,” he answered the questions in order, fluttering with his right wing as feeling returned to it through something like a thousand thorns pricking into the limb under the feathers. Not in a particularly painful way, just deeply bothersome. It quickly became better though, so the slime soon folded both wings into their proper positions, rather than the odd angles they must have laid in during his slumber. “Eyes burning… feel… tired? Unused to it. Want to sleep more. Also don’t. Saw bad images.”

“You were moving around a lot,” Reysha observed, kneeling down and poking Aclysia until she backed off Apexus at least enough for the slime to see the tiger girl. Since she moved with the usual smoothness, the slime guessed that she had been healed. The fact that neither of them were glaring claws at the other was also a positive sign. “What did you dream?”

“That was dr… a dream?” Apexus spoke while correcting himself. Since he already sucked at math, he didn’t also want to be bad at speaking. He didn’t want Aclysia to laugh at him again. Much rather, he hoped that she would one day be impressed with his wordiness. ‘Elo-kensh… eloquence!’ Apexus found that one bigger word. “Saw you two and teaching old man, were all ridiculing me. Then you left me to be eaten by walking steel-man. Dream was awful… Awful dreams nightm… ARE nightmares, correct?”

“Yes,” Aclysia gently caressed the base of his ear. That was a nice place to be touched on, sensitive in a pleasant way, different from the sexual stuff. “I will never leave you, awakener, do not worry. The nightmare is over now.”

Not too long ago, Apexus had been convinced the only thing that could separate him from Gizmo was the old man’s death. That had turned out to be wrong. Despite that, the slime decided to believe those words. What he felt for the fairy was vastly stronger than the bond of studentship it had possessed with the leech in man’s skin.

“Yeah, while we are on the prospect of me also not leaving,” Reysha raised herself into their awareness. “We need to get a couple of things done. First, me and Apexus got to eat. Then, we got to fuck. THEN we got to get out of this thing without using the entrance, somehow.”

“I think it would be wiser if we switched step 2 and 3 in order,” Aclysia offered a correction.

“And I think I need to get my holes ravaged so badly I might start masturbating to an attractive looking piece of wood,” Reysha put against that. “Seriously, I have been in need since I first ate something. The whole fighting kept me from even masturbating. If another thing gets in my way, my pussy is going to drown in its own juices. Hell, I can take off this suit and show y-“

She was already moving her hands when Apexus extended a tentacle. As always, during sleep all of his temporary Growths had disappeared, otherwise he would have raised a leg. Currently, he felt too famished to grow a new one. “No, not necessary,” he stopped her. “I in agreement wi- I AM in agreement with Aclysia. Don’t want scary people finding us. Not during procreation, especially. Want to have procreation in safety.”

“Urgh fine… can I still strip?” Reysha asked.

“Wouldn’t be able to concentrate if you did,” Apexus told her. The tiger girl’s hand moved and revealed the naked skin of her shoulders. Two dark brown stripes spanned over her muscles, a few shades darker than the rest of her.

Aclysia flew up to her and poked the tiger girl’s nose, “He said no.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m teasing him,” Reysha stuck out her tongue but then, with a giggle, pulled her suit back into position. The fact that this bit of shoulder was enough to get Apexus dangerously close to changing into tentacle-state was evidence that he too really wanted to get laid. Still, not the place for it. “Anyway, we’re agreeing on the food then, right? Because I’m going to load my guts before the dullness sets in again.”

“Want to ask just one other… thing,” Apexus presented a small interference. “Did we get rewards? Something useful?” Although Apexus didn’t have the capabilities to wield any equipment yet, he had respect for it after seeing it in action. The dagger was more dangerous than any claw the slime had come across and clothes had deflected various blows. Eventually, the sapient blob wanted to try his limbs on those things as well. “From anything. Never asked what rewards before boss were.”

“Well, we got four items in total,” Reysha answered and went to rummage inside her bag, pulling out one item after another. “Guess Hashahin isn’t that generous here because just about everyone goes into this dungeon, but nobody goes to Clearwater. Anyway, as I said, these two are useless. To us, at least,” she showed Apexus the two items the chests before the boss had spewed out. One was a giant mace that would be hard to wield even with two arms and the other was a little feather. “This would sell for a lot, Scribe items are pretty rare and sought after,” Reysha stated, pointing at the latter, “but we’re wanted now, so whatever.”

“If useless, can I try eating it?” Apexus asked. The feather was black and reflected the moonlight with an intense shimmering that didn’t seem natural.

“For all I care,” Reysha extended her hand towards Apexus, who enveloped her down to the fingertips. In this, he was careful not to digest her a little bit. A successful attempt at holding back, her fingers came away unscathed even as the feather was pulled inside. The slime had become pretty adept at this. “For your info, you’re heavy as shit… and also not acidic while you are unconscious.”

“…Are there… are there excrements as big and heavy as me?” Apexus asked while trying to eat the feather. Nothing happened to the item. It simply existed inside him and radiated a magic aura, somewhat like Aclysia but way weaker. That reminded the slime to try and perceive Aclysia purely on the basis of her magic. Only the part of her that was touching him, her butt and legs, he could actually feel.

Those were the specific parts he could feel because she had found her resting place on his back again. He had even shrunk down one of the plates just to feel her directly, rather than just be faintly aware that there was something sitting on him. The natural armour had a massive disadvantage, if he couldn’t feel those firm thighs and soft ass of hers.

“…Are you seriously not aware of metaphors?” Reysha asked.

“…Ooooh!” Apexus made a long sound. “It was a metaphor! I do get it now! I am sorry, never understood all of speech in all of its windings.”

Aclysia chuckled and gently touched his nearby feathers. “That’s alright, you will learn, my awakener,” he could hear the smile in her voice, “I love your voice, I would love to teach you to use it more eloquently… I mean, give you more wordin-“

“I know that word!” Apexus was quick to assure her. “Know most words, just hard to remember them. You and Gizmo were talking in lots of terms. I… am very observant!”

Reysha snapped her fingers numerous times to interrupt them. “You two get to flirt when I get to have sex!” she declared. “Anyway, other two items, give me a second.”

She pulled two pieces of dark wood from her inventory. One was extremely long, smooth and reinforced with metal at the caps. Some sort of fighting staff. The second was much shorter, barely longer than Reysha’s hand, and seemed more like an unworked branch. Twigs grew out of the upper end and formed some sort of cage.

“This thing is at least somewhat useful,” the tiger girl stated, holding it in her right. After a few moments, the inside of the cage began to glow, the brightness increasing steadily. “Low-tier magical torch. As long as someone with magical power holds it, it emits light. With our line-up, not all that necessary.” She put everything back into the velvet bag on her hips, even the feather, as Apexus found he couldn’t eat it.

“Alright… now we hunt,” Apexus declared.