Merumeru nodded sadly. "Meru." Alex hugged her and she squeaked with joy from his embrace.

The three of them stayed by the fountain for a while. Alex sat on the ledge, and Merumeru kept trying to make her arm thin enough to squeeze it into the spigot. The flow of water always pushed her back out, but a flamingo cheered her on. Alex suspected that the slime girl didn't really want to help him finish the fountain project; she just saw it as a fun water ride that she wanted to try again. She hadn't figured out that the ride only went one way. Oh well, kids are cute in their own way.

Fufi and Alex sat on a ledge overlooking the town. After a while, Fufi turned to Alex and said, "I'm very proud of Merumeru for fixing the fountain. She did a great job."

Alex furrowed his brows. "She's really growing up to be quite a young lady." 

Alex noticed Merumeru standing above them with her arms wrapped around the fountain's spigot, pumping water into the basin below her. He was a little jealous that she had been able to fix the pipe problem so easily, as he had been prepared to spend days trying to figure out how to take measurements, create pipes, and fit them all together. However, he couldn't be angry at the cute slime girl. So his emotions were definitely mixed.
Fufi put her wing on Alex's shoulder and said, "We should head back soon."

Alex rose to his feet and said, "You're right." He turned to Merumeru and said, "Merumeru, you did a great job on the fountain. I'm impressed."

Merumeru beamed.

Alex suggested fish and berries for supper, which everyone agreed to. He got up and headed back to the shore, followed by Fufi. Merumeru hopped down from the fountain and shook herself dry before following them. As they walked, Alex cleaned the path with his feather duster. He had walked down the street that led out of town so many times that he started to get annoyed by how unkempt it was.

They made their way out of town and to the shore. Alex picked some berries while Fufi and Merumeru went fishing. Fufi caught all the fish, as little slime hands are not very good at grasping slippery fish in water. Fufi would dart in with a quick peck and pull the fish out of the water, then fly back to Alex to cook. They ate quickly and headed back to the empty town.

"How do you like maids?  Cleaning is a good step towards becoming a maid type magical girl.”Fufi noticed Alex seemed to be having fun with the feather duster. 

Alex pictured his old self arriving at a mansion with a line of maids to greet him they say in unison, "okaerinasaimase goshujinsama" and all bow. Each is dressed in a frilly black dress with a matching frilly white apron. He wondered why the girls in his daydream were addressing him in japanese.  He would feel uncomfortable assuming the role of a maid serving an esteemed master. Shaking off the daydream, he addressed Fufi, "I like maids, but I would rather be able to employ them than be one."

Fufi gave a slight nod, and Alex thought he could see a smirk on her beak if she had one. Merumeru ran about to explore her new home.

"It's time for bed, Merumeru," Fufi said. She guided Merumeru to the basement of the adventurer's guild. It was almost dark outside, so they cleaned up as best they could in the light coming through the trapdoor before going to sleep.

Fufi slept on one leg by the stone bed. Merumeru curled up next to her after putting on her bunny pajamas. Alex barred the trapdoor and lay down on the rug he had used the night before.

"I wonder what else Merumeru could do with her slime powers?" Alex thought. "Could she make a water line to the adventurer's guild? If we could build some valves, we could have running water in this building."

He half-expected Fufi to comment on his plans, but she was silent. Perhaps she was listening, or perhaps she was asleep. In his old world, the sleep habits of birds were an entire field of study. He had no idea what someone with a doctorate in bird study would be called. Would they be a birdologist? He didn't think that was the right word, but he couldn't figure it out as he found that thinking about names for bird expert titles was a good way to fall asleep.

The next morning, Fufi woke up to find Alex sleeping soundly. She gently nudged him awake, saying, "Rise and shine, Alex."

Alex rubbed his eyes and sat up. "I didn't expect to sleep so well last night." 

Merumeru, who was full of energy, gave him a hug and said "Meru!" cheerfully. "She seems really happy," Alex said. He looked at Fufi, who said, "I'm glad she's been able to stay so innocent through all of this. I hope we can protect her."

Alex opened the trapdoor to let in some light. He saw the rift pillar in the far room and was reminded of his previous failure. He was still traumatized, but he felt more confident after defeating the sewer slime. He thought he might be able to defeat a trash golem or a miasma monster, but his biggest obstacle was fear of the unknown. The slime girl made him feel more confident.
Alex, Fufi, and Merumeru prepared a breakfast of fish, water, and berries. They ate at their private beach, which was nice to have. After they finished eating, Merumeru cleaned herself in the water, and Fufi and Alex followed her. Cleanliness was important to everyone.

Fufi complimented the sparkling slime girl on her appearance, saying, "You look so pretty when you're clean." Merumeru smiled in response and said, "meru."

Alex then said, "Now that we're fed and clean, I was thinking of trying to clear the rift again. What do you think?"

Fufi said, "That sounds like a great idea. Playing house is nice, but if you can't defend your home, then the demon queen's army will take everything away, like what happened to the villagers who lived here before and lost everything." Fufi gestured in the direction of the graveyard.

Merumeru agreed with a nod, "Meru!"

They headed back towards town and made their way into the basement room that housed the odd obsidian pillar rift creation device. Alex looked at Merumeru, "You have to stay here with Fufi. The rift dungeons this thing creates are dangerous challenges. If someone fails they could die. Good girls stay away from things they are not sure about. Understand?"

Merumeru nodded again, "Meru."

Alex opened the rift again, and the obsidian split apart and floated in mid-air, forming a watery portal. He looked back at Fufi and Merumeru, who were staring at the portal with wide eyes.

"Meru?" Alex asked.

"No way are you coming with me," he said firmly.

"Now now, who's a good slime girl?" Fufi said in a soft voice.

Merumeru darted towards the portal before Alex could stop her. Fufi yelled, "No, stop!" and Alex tried to grab her, but she was too quick. Her body deformed as she stretched and slipped through the portal like a liquid.

"Ugh, I better go fetch her," Alex said.

As he entered the portal, Fufi started to say something, but her voice cut off.

Alex found himself standing on an island suspended in space. A lone structure adorned the small area. It looked like a cross between a storefront, a workshop, and a Victorian cathedral. Two large glass windows were on either side of a metal double door. The doors were made of exposed gears, giving them a steampunk look. Ball jointed dolls in fancy Victorian attire were displayed in the windows, posed in ways that made them look like they were dancing.

Alex approached the door, which opened with a whoosh of steam from nearby exhaust pipes. The gears turned as he stepped inside the quaint little shop. The ceiling was fifteen feet high, with Edison lights in every corner and several display cases on shelves around the walls. There were a couple of tables with chairs, some couches near one wall, and a few bookshelves filled with books on another wall. Alex called out, "Merumeru, where are you?" but there was no reply. He looked around and frowned at the thick layer of dust on every surface. He shook his head and said to himself, "This place looks abandoned."

 

Alex walked through the open doorway behind the counter and into an ornately decorated hallway. He called out for the lost slime girl as he walked. At the end of the hallway, he turned and found himself facing a mannequin with long curly hair, a bonnet, a black leather bustier and skirt, long pointed fingernails, and a bare face. The mannequin was mounted on a pole attached to its back. Alex was creeped out by the mannequin's Victorian outfit.

The hallway opened up into a large workshop area. The walls were lined with workstations, and there were wrought iron stairs that led up to a mezzanine level. The mezzanine level was lined with shelves that held all kinds of assorted parts. Alex inspected the workstations and saw that they were used for things like doll making and watch making.

In the center of the workshop area was a very large contraption built into a table. It looked like a landscape with paths leading to a fairy-tale castle at the other end of the table. Small rails were built into the pathways, and little towers lined the path leading to the castle. At the other end of the table, there was a metal chute that went down into the floor. The chute was large enough for something the size of a doll to fit in. The small rails went into the chute. Numerous gears, springs, and chains adorned the whole contraption.

Alex looked down the chute and saw nothing but darkness. He called out, "Merumeru! Where are you?" but there was no answer.

He went upstairs and found bolts of cloth, gears, iron rods, and steam power equipment. He also found a shelf with pressure gauges, valves, pipes, and ferals. There were some extra Edison bulbs in a box. Alex thought the equipment could be useful, but he needed to find Meru first. He searched the area, but she was nowhere to be found.

He went back downstairs and called out to her again. "Meru! Where are you?!"

Alex returned to the storefront and searched the bookshelves. The books were mostly about doll making, with a few on clock making and steam power. He had seen these topics before, but it was nice to know that someone cared enough about them to write about them. Did someone write them? Or did they just appear when the dungeon was created? Alex pushed these thoughts aside and grabbed a doll from the display, hugging it to his chest in an attempt to calm down. He searched the outside of the building again, but Merumeru was nowhere to be found. The back of the building had some exhaust pipes spewing smoke and steam, but no Merumeru. Thinking she might have gone back through the portal before he arrived, Alex went back through it to ask Fufi if she had seen the little girl.

Alex found Fufi at the bottom of the stairs, looking worried.

"Meru is..." she started, but then stopped when she saw the Victorian doll Alex was holding. "Where did you get that?"

"From the dungeon," Alex said. "It's like some kind of doll-making shop. More importantly, have you seen Meru?" He set the doll down against the wall of the basement.

Fufi looked at him. "She went through the portal just before you did."

Alex panicked. "I know that, but I didn't see her inside. She went into the dungeon, right?"

Fufi huffed. "That's what I was trying to tell you before you ran in. The rift dungeon is customized for each person. The one she went in is different from yours."

Alex was worried about Merumeru's safety. "Can you summon her back like you did for me last time?"

Fufi shook her head. "No, I can only do that because you and I have a familiar contract."

"What do we do? How do we find her?" Alex asked.

Fufi thought for a moment. "Right now, all we can do is wait. It's the same for you. She'll either clear her trial, give up and come back, or..."

Alex's eyes widened. "Or she'll get hurt?"

Fufi nodded. "That's a possibility. We can only hope that she comes back safely."

Alex said, "What should I do?"

Fufi replied, "You have your trial to finish, and she has hers. I have faith that you can complete yours. Do you have faith that she can complete hers?"

Alex took a deep breath before replying. "I don't know, but I hope so."

Alex and Fufi waited in silence for Merumeru to return from the rift dungeon. Alex grew restless and began pacing. "I can't just stand here and wait," he said. "I need to finish what I started. There weren't any monsters in the dungeon, so what kind of dungeon is it?"

"I've never heard of a dungeon without monsters," Fufi said, "but your circumstances are unique. Expect the unexpected."

"What about traps or puzzles?" Alex asked, growing even more restless.

"Maybe that dungeon is full of them," Fufi said. "Did you see anything that looked like a puzzle?"

"There was a weird mechanical contraption in the center of the workshop," Alex said. "I don't know what it is."

"That's the puzzle," Fufi said.

"I don't get it," Alex said, pacing around the basement.

"Calm down and take a closer look," Fufi said. "You should be able to solve it. The rift wouldn't give you anything you couldn't handle."

"Thanks for the encouragement, Fufi," Alex said. "I'm going to go take another look." He headed back through the rift gate.

The strange contraption looked like it could be operated somehow. He just wasn't sure how to start it. He took a couple pictures of it with his phone. If nothing else he could show them to Fufi and see if she had any idea. His phone charge was at 20% which was not great. It was at that moment that he noticed an icon that he never expected to see again. There was a network to connect his phone to. He connected and tried to open a web page. It auto redirected to a simple page that was titled "Tower Defense '' there were some pictures on how to connect his phone to the device in front of him. He pressed a few things and slid a panel out of the side of the table. There was a slot like a cradle for a phone charger that he could slot his phone into. A little lightning icon appeared when the phone was in place. For some weird reason this thing also doubled as a phone charger. There was a link at the bottom of the webpage to download a .apk file for the tower defense program. He pressed it and downloaded it onto his phone. When trying to open it he got the popup that it could not verify the publisher and was a security risk. Alex ignored this and installed it anyway.

 

Alex opened the app and read the brief explanation: the sirens were seeking the prince's heart and were on their way to enchant him with their alluring songs. The next window instructed him to prepare defenses to protect the prince. Alex thought it was strange that the game was about protecting a prince, as games like this usually involved protecting a princess. He also thought it was unnecessary to conform to stereotypes by always making the princess the damsel in distress.

The screen then prompted him to place his defenses and to begin wave 1 when ready. Unlike a normal tower defense game, this one did not have a set tech tree or possible placements for where to put his defenses. It just had a picture of the table with spots highlighted for where he could place units. Alex was confused because he didn't have any units to place. He inspected the spots where he could place units and saw that some of them looked like they were meant for clockwork dolls. However, there were no clockwork dolls in the workshop, only materials for doll creation.

Alex complained that this was impossible because he didn't know anything about doll making, and he stepped away from the table.

He returned to the hallway and walked past the mannequin. He wondered why the clothes were placed next to the workshop. Could it be important to clearing the dungeon? He continued down the hallway, looking for clues about the machine. The only obvious thing was the books in the shop. He went back to the shop and picked up a random book on doll making. He sat on the couch and flipped through the pages. The first page showed how to make dolls from scratch, which would take days. The second page showed how to use a mold to speed up the process. It also showed how to fit ball joints together and pictures of other dolls and their parts. However, it didn't provide any information about the machine, which needed clockwork dolls, not ball joint dolls. He put the book down and looked at the other items in the shop. The dolls on display were ordinary and couldn't be used in the machine, but they were dungeon loot, so he decided to collect them. He placed them in a crate and pushed them through the portal. Maybe Merumeru would like to play with them later.

Alex returned to the workshop and examined the contraption. He then went to a workstation and laid out some small gears that looked like they might fit into the slots where the dolls were supposed to go. The gears had numbers and letters on them, but he couldn't figure out what they meant. He put them down and went back to the shop, glancing at the mannequin as he passed.

He continued down the hallway and looked at the shelves of books. The titles included "The Art of Puppetry," "The Science of Clockwork," "Wondrous Doll Hair," "Machines of All Kinds," and "The Unnatural History of Dolls."