Finally, after at least 2 rounds with all of them, they were either satisfied or letting me rest. They all lay on the floor, their eyes closed and mouths forming a smile. I slowly got up and quietly moved towards what I could only assume to be the cave's exit. As I entered the room, the only thing I could see was more pathways. I took a gamble and walked towards the left-most path.

As I walked down the path, I found another door. I walked through and found countless bodies, animals and humans alike. The stench made me pinch my nose while gagging. I quickly exited the room, running back towards the other pathways as fast as possible, I wasn't sure when they would kill me, but I didn't want to stick around and find out. 

After running back, I went down the center-most pathway. However, after running down, the only thing I found was a dead-end. 'Fuck…' I thought to myself while quickly running back. I hoped they hadn't realized I was gone by now, if they did, I wasn't sure what I'd be able to do…

Wait…

'That's right! System!' I said while franticly running back.

The status window opened in front of me. I hadn't noticed before, but at the top right there were 30 unread messages… 'Ah, whatever! Azur! Help me!' 

{Yes darli- host?}

'Help me! What do I buy to get out of here! Skills, items, potions, anything!'

{Why? Didn't you read the messages? After all the hard work I put into those messages, that's how you treat them?} Said Azur in a bone-chilling tone.

'Ah, ah, I'm sorry Azur!' I said, hoping she wouldn't take this system away from me, my only lifeline on this planet.

I quickly pressed on the bell widget. Opening a menu, the first unread message titled, 'Congratulations, you've met the criteria to unlock The System™!' 

Skipping that, the next few were messages explaining the different features and things you could do on The System. Finally, the next 12 messages were about the success of my taming of 12 tier-C Mother Slime while the rest were about whether I would accept the position as their tamer. As I frantically pressed yes on all of them it notified me of receiving 2400 SP and instructed me to exit the notifications menu. I stopped and thought to myself, 'What was I even worried about…' 

{The possibility of death and eternal imprisonment.} 

'...'

After ignoring Azur, I continued to peacefully walk back where I was while following the tooltips. It led me to the list, where I unlocked a sub-category named 'Tamed Monsters'. After clicking on it, it brought up a list of the 12 slimes. Next to them were 2 bars, one for "Infatuation" and the other being "Loyalty". It was strange though, the Infatuation was broken, all it said was: 'ERROR%/100' while the loyalty was '20/100'.

'Hey Azur, what do these mean?' 

{Infatuation represents how 'in love' your tamed beasts are while loyalty represents how loyal your tamed beast is to you in other words how it will follow your orders and stay with you.}

'Okay, thanks Azur.'

{Dear host, to repay me could you do me a small favour? I just want to call you darling instead of 'host'.} 

'Uh, sure, whatever you want…'

Strange I thought, why did she want to call me that? 

{Yay! Thank you darling~!} Said Azur in a much happier tone than before. I wasn't sure why she wanted to call me that, but I really didn't care enough to ask. I was guessing she's something like a figment of my desire, each system having a unique voice? Wait, am I delusional? Is this even real? Ahhh I don't care...

After walking back while humming a tune familiar to anyone on earth, I got back to the 3-way path. Standing there were all 12 slime girls, staring at me as if they wanted something. I carefully walked past them and into the last path, hopefully leading to the outside. Behind me, I could hear them trailing behind. 'Is this how it feels to be famous?' I thought to myself, feeling secure knowing that I had a group of slime girls ready to serve me.

After walking for a few minutes, I could finally see the light of nature! I happily walked towards the sun rays before I was stopped only a few feet away from leaving. I slowly looked back and found all 12 of the slime girls looking at me, while the pink one grabbed onto me. 

"Hey, let me go." (Rain)

As I said that, she started pulling me back, not letting me free. 

"Hey, seriously, let me go!" (Rain) 

'Azur! Why won't they listen to me?!?!'

{Well darling, that's because their loyalty is so low, if it was higher, they wouldn't disobey you.} 

'How do I raise it!?!?' I said to Azur in a panic, quickly hoping to end this.

But before Azur was able to answer, the orange one spoke. “You... us.... forever together…”

“Okay…? Uhm, can you disguise yourself? Actually, that wouldn't really matter now would it? There are way too many of you, so I can't take you along.” (Rain)

Suddenly, they all started walking towards each other, merging together one by one. Becoming one single entity, as they finished, the system spoke. 

[Congratulations! Your C rank Mother Slimes have evolved into a B rank Mother Slime!] 

'Wow that was cool…'

"Oh, it's been so long since I've been in this form. Now, let's go back!" (Slime)

"W-what? Ah, um, no? I need to go back home." (Rain)

"Oh darling, please. This is our home. Now come~" (Slime)

"No! This isn't my real home, if you want to come with me, you can, but I'm definitely not staying here." (Rain)

"No! You're staying with me, whether you want to or not, this is your real home." Said my newly evolved slime girl as she menacingly stepped towards me.

"Wait! Stop! Listen, I don't care about your delusional fantasies, alright? I'm going back home, and if you want to come, you can, otherwise, I'm going without you." (Rain)

"How cute~ However, what if I just force you to stay here~?" (Slime)

"Then I'll kill myself, I have no reason to live if this is how my life is going to be." I said. It was a bluff, but it was my only chance. I looked at her, with no expression on my face nor my eyes. Luckily for me, I hadn't been able to smile a lot of my life, allowing me to maintain this natural, depressed face. Fortunately, her expression quickly turned into that from a laughing one, to a worried one.

"Uuuu. Fine! Let's go..." Said my slime with a pout. How cute.

Shortly after, we left, while heading back to the city, my slime talked about how she couldn't take properly before because her consciousness was split into 12, apparently, it was a preservation thing she did. As my mind wandered, still wondering why she wanted to call me darling, I asked Azur. 'Hey Az, how do I get back to earth?'

{Don't call me Az.}

'Hey, actually… Yeah, sorry… Okay. Hey Azur, how do I get back to Earth?'

{The shop of course~!} 

'How do I bring her back with me? And will you also come back with me?' 

{Yes, I'm going to be with you honey, don't worry about me. Also, you'll need to spend some SP so she can disguise herself, you can buy it one by one or you can buy an all-in-one bundle! You save some SP as well!}

'Spoken like a true business woman…'

{Well, do you like those types~?♥}

'...'

Ignoring Azur, I went into the shop. I could spend 6700 SP on getting back to earth, and taking my… slime girl with me? I realized I needed to give her a name, but right now, I just wanted to get back to Earth.

After scrolling for a bit, I decided to just search up 'earth' in the search bar. A few items came up. 2 I could afford and 3 I could not, those prices starting at 12,000SP! 

Checking the description of those I could afford, it seemed that both of the items I could buy were temporary, one taking me back by myself one time and the other taking 2 or less companion(s) with me. 

After spending 1500SP on that item, I sighed and checked the price for the so-called 'All-in-one bundle'. It was priced at a whopping 5000SP! I sighed and unwillingly bought it. Quickly using it on my slime and consuming the one time use item, sending me back to Earth before regretting my purchase.

**

Waking up after using the item, I found myself on my bed, in my apartment. Sitting on my computer chair, was my slime girl. 'I should really give her a name…'

I got up from my bed. Showing my slime my small apartment. The machines, what electricity is, etc. After doing that for around 40 minutes, she had leaned how to use the toaster. I told her to rest on the bed while I took a shower, advising her not to touch anything. 

Getting out of the shower, I felt refreshed. Clean clothes, basic hygiene felt special now. But as I was watching her use the toaster, someone started banging on my door.

"Are you in there Rain? Please open the door!" 

That high-pitched, yet mature, fine voice. Only one person I knew had that unique voice, Aina!

"Coming!" (Rain)

After stretching, I opened the door, revealing Aina's worried face. She looked at me with a death glare, before bursting out in what I could only assume to be anger. 

"Do you know how much time I've spent looking for you!?!? Why the hell did you disappear for 12 days, just to come back now!?!?" (Aina)

"Ah, s-sorry Aina, I was just… busy" Aina looked behind me, before her expression took a 180° turn. Going from anger to happiness, but I wasn't sure if that smile was really happiness or concealed anger. 

"Oh, I see. You were with your girlfriend, I apologize for that." Aina said in an apologetic tone before bowing.

"A-Aina! You don't have to bow, it's okay..." (Rain)

"No no, please, let me apologize. Please, come to my apartment, I'd like to properly apologize." (Aina) 

"T-that's fine, you don't nee-" (Rain)

"No, I said, let me properly apologize, understood?"(Aina)

"Uh, o-okay…?" (Rain)

She smiled sweetly before clasping her hands together, as if she had just remembered something. "Oh right! I also got a cat, don't you want to see it? You can bring your girlfriend with you as well." (Aina)

"Yes, I want to come!" (Slime)

"Uh, give me a second Aina, just a minute." I replied, quickly making an excuse. I couldn't risk her doing anything unusual. I closed the door and turned around, facing my 'girlfriend'. "Listen, this will be quick, I can't let you come, you don't know much about my world yet, please for once, trust me." I whispered.

"Tch, fine. Be quick though! I want to learn more about that "stoup" you were talking about!"

"Stove. But thank you, this won't be long, don't touch anything!" I said one last time before leaving my apartment.

I followed her into her apartment, which was right next to mine. She opened the door, and I walked in, looking around, there was no cat. "Where's the cat?" I asked.

Aina closed the door behind me, walking right behind me and whispering into my ear. "Meow~♥" 

Then suddenly, as I was turning around, some sort of chemical paper was shoved into my face. I was forced to inhale it. I pushed her away as I backed off. "Cough... What... What are you doing!?!? What was in that paper!?!?" (Rain)

"Oh how you worry about the small things, just let it sit, you'll be out cold in no time, after all, I can't let another bitch take you away from me~♥" (Aina)

"You-you're crazy!" (Rain)

"Aw, if only you had waited just a few more years, then we'd have been happily don't dating, loving each other every night! But no, you just HAD to find some stupid bitch to date you, didn't you?!?! Haha... Well, you'll be falling asleep soon enough, it's self-made you know? I've had it prepared just in case for a looong time. Hehe~" 

That was it, my body started becoming even more numb as the seconds clocked by. I soon fell unconcious, the last thing I could hear was Aina's maniacal laughter.