It has been several hours since Stolas and Jade had encountered the adventurer and made off with their loot. Now safely back in the cave the imp is still asleep after sitting down to rest.

*Poke*

Jade gently prods Stolas’ comatose form, getting little to no reaction.

*Poke**Poke*

Getting worried the slime prods him again, this time with more urgency.

“Stoooop…” The imp groans getting up to his knees. With a sigh Stolas stretches out his soar body, “How long was I out…?”

Looking towards the angle of the sun he figures that it has only been an hour or so, since he got back. “I never knew magic could be so draining…”

Apparently, the imp was not moving fast enough since Jade kept pushing up against his leg.

“What is it?”

Jade pushes against him once more before crawling back towards the entrance of the cave. Pulling on his new shirt Stolas follows the excited slime on weak and wobbly legs as it leads him to a rather haphazardly stacked pile of rations.

“Oh, so you were hungry. You didn’t have to wait.” With a smirk the imp chuckles to himself and sitting down in front of the small feast. The excited Jade immediately jumps into the pile scattering the dried food everywhere. “Careful!”

Letting the small bit of bad behavior go he decides to just let the slime have some fun and join in eating his fill. Halfway through the meal Stolas Can’t help but glance over at the tome. Giving in he picks it up and rereads the passage about elemental cores and their uses again. Piecing together more of the translation, Stolas turns his eyes away from the food and towards their loot.

“Jade, do you think we have enough for a full-sized core?” The slime ignored him but that was fine since he was just voicing his thoughts out loud. Leaving the tome aside Stolas started digging through their small pile of pilfered treasure.

“Hmm,” Humming in disappointment he frowns at the small pile, his search mostly turned out mundane items. Pots, a knife, a mismatched pair of boots, and few trinkets he couldn’t identify. His disappointment built until, “…What are these?”

Holding the two objects in each hand Stolas could see the faint circulation of mana around them. In one hand he held short and polished wand, and the other had small ring with a red gem fixed to it. Closer inspection revealed that the objects drew in raw mana and structured it into elemental mana in accordance with their enchantments. The wand held wind mana while the ring glowed with fire.

“Well?” Turning to the slime, who just now shows interest in what he’s doing. Holding up both hands he presents the items to Jade. “Which one should I use first?”

The green slime seems to give it some thought, before poking his hand holding the wand.

“Okay, wand it is.” Tossing the ring to Jade Stolas gets up and heads over to the magic circle from before, unaware of the slime puffing itself up and spitting the ring on the ground. It apparently wanted to keep the wand.

Tossing the wand into the center of the magic circle Stolas begins the ritual. The dull white light of raw mana quickly gives way to brilliant emerald green as the wand begins to dissolve inside the bubble. The imp and slime can’t help but be awed by the spectacle, nearly too bright to look at directly the bubble sparkling green motes of light swirl and clash within the orb. The pressure inside seems almost too much for the spell to handle, streams of shimmering green ribbons escape only loop back and be pulled back in.

“Oh shit, I almost forgot!” Jumping to his feet Stolas rushes in. Grasping the solid bubble, he can feel the surface shivering almost ready to fracture. With clumsy haste he ejects as much of the other elements as possible, taking chunks of the green as well. So much is escaping from the orb that it creates a stream of wind in all directions lifting his hair and billowing out his clothes. Finally stabilized the bubble begins to shrink and compress to fit in the palm of Stolas’ hand.

“Is it…?” Passing the green, glass-like ball between his hands, “Yes! It is! Its apple sized!”

Excited the imp jumps for joy, swinging the orb around all the while he keeps his eyes locked on the green core. Staring deep into the core he marveles at how the orb shifted from a pale green outside to a rich emerald center.

“Look Jade!” Presenting the core to his slime companion, he let it grab the core from his hands and inspect it. To which the slime promptly swallows it, the dull green glow lighting up the slimes body made for somewhat amusing sight. “Really Jade?”

Letting Jade have its fun, Stolas went back to read the tome, and deciding how he wanted to try and use the core this time.

…

Outside in the woods bordering Gelum River.

“It’s getting too dark,” A woman clad in leather armor squints down at the ground, barely able to see the tracks she was fallowing. Resting on her haunches she looks up at the mountain range the trail was leading her towards. A sour scowl scrunches up her face as she scans the scenery. “…”

The surrounding slimes seemed to sense her open hostility and gave her wide berth for the duration of her time in the forest. One particularly oblivious slime does wander a bit too close.

*Thunk*

A knife flashes out stabbing the ground before it. Terrified the poor slime trembles under her cold glare, as fast as it can the goo ball turns tail and scurries back into the forest.

“Tch, just pissing me off more…”

Standing up she gives the mountains one last look before getting ready to head back to camp. But before she does a small flash of light catches her eye. In the distance a green light flashes and glows. Curious and with a faint sense of hope building in her chest, she starts making her way over towards the source.

…

“So according to this,” Sitting down on front of Jade, Stolas examined the green wind core sitting between him and the slime. “If I combine a core with a living creature it should make it stronger… but, the tome warns that too much at one time can kill the subject, violently…”

Jade bobbed its body, as if following along. How much the green slime understood what he was saying the imp didn’t know.

“It goes without saying, I can’t use one of those bug things,” just thinking about the crustacean creatures brought their vile taste to his mouth, “So what do you think? Should I test it out on myself or the spear again? I do need to fix it after that last fight…”

Ignoring him Jade picks up the green orb and swallows it again, swishing the wind orb through its slimy body and around its core.

“Hey.” Giving Jade a frown Stolas chastises the slime, holding his hand out he wordlessly demands the orb back. “I’m being serious here.”

Jade pushes the wind core to the surface its body, but when the imp tries to take the core back the slime retracts the core and swings its body around as if to imitate someone shaking their head.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Their lack of verbal communication was particularly frustrating here.

They go back and forth several times, eventually Jade allows the imp to touch the core but as soon as he moves to take it, the slime retracts the core quickly with loud plop.

“So, you want to keep it? I know it’s pretty, but we don’t have that sort of luxury.” Stolas frowned crossing his arms. “We need it to hunt tomorrow.”

Seeming to share in his frustration Jade vibrates briefly forming small spikes along its body. Extending a tendril, the slime points towards his spear, and presents the core.

“You want me to use it on the spear? You could have just said so from the start.” The imp reaches out to take the core once again and like before Jade retracts it inside its body vibrating again. “No?”

This time with more emphasis the slime points at the spear and extends the core towards him. This time before he reacts Jade pulls the orb back in its body close to its own slime core and spins the two orbs around together.

“Wait?” Realization dawning on him Stolas glanced back and forth between his spear and Jade. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. We have no idea how much mana a slime can take, nor do we really know how much there is in the core. A demon like me should have more capacity for it.”

The slime puffs itself up, and pokes at Stolas’ horns with a green tendril.

“I know my horns are small, that doesn’t mean anything!” His face flushes red from a mixture of embarrassment and anger. “It’s just an indicator nothing more!”

Jade stubbornly keeps ahold of elemental core, despite Stolas’ continued protests.

“Fine,” Giving up the imp throws his hands up in the air, “I’ll do it.”

Hearing him relent the slime rushes over into his lap, jiggling happily while pushing into his chest.

“Of, course your happy, now that you get what you want,” With a sigh the imp stands up, brushing off his now slimy shirt, motioning to follow he explains, “We need to head over to the circle for this one.”

…

Brushing a lock of her hair out of her eyes, the adventure’s mind wanders as she heads towards where she saw the light. Maybe I should wait for Ignatz, I just sent the message.

Stealthily running her way through the forest, Daria shakes her head. Nah, his armor will just give away my position. I should check it out ahead of time. …Just to make sure.

Stopping for a second to get her bearings she looks out towards the mountains. I just wish the light will show up again, all these damn cliffs look the same.

As if to answer her silent complaint a bright green glow erupted from an alcove a short distance away from her. Her eyes narrowing, she sprints ahead directly aiming for the source.

She only slows her pace once she approaches the entrance to the cave the light is emanating from. Peeking in, she presses up against one of the larger rock formations. Inside her eyes are immediately drawn towards the source of the light.

“Wha-?” Daria lets out an involuntary noise, she can’t help but be surprised by this ritual she has never seen before.

Inside there is a magic circle with a green orb of light hanging over a single slime. Brilliant ribbons of green light flow from orb looping and coiling around the slime they stream into its gooey body. The green slime shivers, in pain or something else she can’t tell. The light infuses the slime, as its body expands and contracts with large bubbles forming within.  Seeming to be over the slime appears to be nearly twice the size of a normal slime, it would probably come up to her knee in comparison. No longer covered by the light of the ritual she can finally see the other occupant of the cave. Looking at his face she can feel fury grip at her heart.

In a low voice she sends a magic message to her armored companion. “I found him.”

…

“How do you feel?” Cautiously Stolas approaches the slime. As he walks into the circle, he notices some movement in the corner of his eye.

Time slows down as he spots a throwing knife flying at his eye, with barely enough time to dodge he jerks his head to the side. The spinning knife flies past him cutting deep into his cheek leaving a single bloody line below his eye.

Before he can fully process what just happened a leather clad figure rushes in the mouth of the cave rushing at him with a long dagger ready to strike.

“Shit!” stumbling back the imp trips and lands on his ass, one hand scoops and flings a few nearby pebbles as the other searches for his spear.

The small spray of rocks doesn’t deter the approaching adventurer at all, within seconds she is standing above Stolas ready to plunge her knife into his chest.

Coming to his aide the slime lashes with a new ability none of the three had ever seen. A stream of bubbles erupts from Jade coating the woman’s left-hand side. Instead of popping against her the slime bubbles adhere and combine where they touch each other. Try as she might the bubbles wouldn’t shake loose.

Taking the opportunity, Stolas scrabbles backward. His spear now in reach he snatches it up and lashes out with a haphazard strike. With a sweep of her bubble covered arm Daria knocks his attack to the side, as the spearhead stabs into the bubbles they pop harmlessly free her from them. Putting itself between Stolas and the adventurer, Jade unleashes another stream of bubbles, the slime’s mass was noticeably smaller after releasing so many.

“Tch!” clicking her tongue Daria jumps back, flinging a knife through the green torrent before landing and throwing another.

The first knife rips through the bubbles clearing nearly two thirds of them, as the remaining portion spreads out away from her. The second sails past Jade at Stolas, the imp just manages to knock the lethal projectile with the haft of his spear.

Getting to his feet the imp circles around trying to put Daria between him and Jade. Stepping into range he stabs at her releasing a cloud of mist to obscure himself. Drawing inspiration from her he follows up his strike with a second from the mist. The adventurer quickly recovers from the mist trick and easily knocks away both of Stolas’ stabs.

“That’s a fancy spear, did you steal that one too?” Her voice was full of derision.

“Who are you?” The adventurer’s face twisted up into a scowl. Behind her he noticed Jade stealthily crawling over to sneak attack her. Trying to keep her attention on him he continues. “Whatever I stole I’ll give it back, okay?”

“You can’t.” Before Stolas could ask more Jade lashes out with a tendril aimed at Daria’s head. As if predicting the attack, the woman swings around in a flash with her dagger slashing at the pseudopod and a knife raised.

In a panic the imp rushes in to stab Daria in her exposed back, but the knife throw was a feint. Keeping her momentum, the adventurer puts all of her inertia into a kick aimed at Stolas.

Unable to get out of the way he abandons his strike and moves the haft of his spear to intercept her foot. Connecting with the magically enhanced wood, all of the energy is absorbed by the spear. Ufortunately, it was too much for the spear to bear and it snaps like a twig, Stolas is launched back from the kick and holds two halves of his weapon.

Barely giving him a chance to confirm what happened Daria rushes at him, her dagger ready to strike. Buying himself some time he flings the shattered bottom half of his spear at her and scurries toward the stream of water, picking up the tome as he passes it. The tome was at least heavy enough to use as a weapon.

As the adventurer deflects the piece of wood Jade unleashes another torrent of bubbles into her exposed back.

“Daria!” A loud shout erupts from the mouth of the cave. The armored Ignatz rushes in blocking the stream entirely with his shield.

“That wasn’t necessary, they just get in the way.” The dagger wielding woman straightens her stance pulling out another knife, as her companion swipes the clinging bubbles away. “And his spear releases a smoke screen.”

“I see.” The man side steps putting himself between the monsters and the mouth of the cave. Ignatz’ partially hidden eyes focus on the imp’s hand. “He has that tome.”

Jade circles around closer to the imp.

“Yeah, we’re taking it back.” The woman simply stated. Throwing the knife at Stolas she immediately dashed after it. “You take the slime!”

“Jade! Bubbles now!” Reacting immediately the slime erupts in a cloud of bubbles as the imp’s mist spreads everywhere obscuring the two.

Before Daria can act Stolas’ spear launches from the bubble screen aimed directly at the woman. Ignatz step in front of her as his eyes give off a white light, with his shield extended the spear gets knocked away harmlessly. Following up the two adventures swing out in unison, their weapons hitting nothing but air.

Clearing away the bubbles and mist reveal the two monsters had disappeared.

…

*Splash*

Below his cave, Stolas and Jade plummet through the underground waterfall into large pool of water. Frantically paddling Stolas manages to breach the roiling surface and swim to the shore. With solid ground under his feet he grabs the bubble attached to his face and pops it using his nails. The rest of his body is likewise covered in bubbles, and one in particular appears to be keeping the tome safe and dry.

“I don’t think they’ll follow us down here.” Collapsing on to his back Stolas peers up at the distant ceiling, and at the hole where they escaped from. “Good job on the bubbles without them we would probably be dead. So, thanks Jade. …Jade?”

Not getting a response the imp looks over to his companion. The green slime huddles down shivering, most of its mass seems to have been washed away by the stream or used for bubbles leaving it smaller than its original size.

“Shit! Are you okay?” He tries not to raise his voice too much but can’t keep the panic from entering it.

Still shivering the slime crawls over to him, pushing up against him it starts reabsorbing the remaining bubbles.

“I don’t think that will be enough,” Stolas looks around at the small tunnel system around them, “I’m sure there’s something for you to eat around here…”

*Skritch*

“?!” The sound of something sharp scratching against stone echoed from the direction of the lake. Just loud enough to be heard over the mini waterfall the sounds of many sharp feet dragging a chitin plated body drew the imp’s attention to the water.

“Fuck…”