"What's up with that magic of yours, girl? Rose, right? And that weird mark… I've never seen something like that before!" The red slime spoke with the voice of a grown man, surprising even more the kids due to his small and cute appearance.
"W-What is that?!"
"Rose you've got a slime over your head!"
"Slimes?! Get it off quickly, they'll melt your head!"
"Uwaaah, kill it! Kill it!"
The children knew of slimes for a while now, they were one of the most common monsters around the island. They came in different shapes and forms, but they were often small and ate trash and garbage, dissolving it with their bodies.
However, they were often aggressive and not tame at all, spraying with acid anything that threatened them before running away as quick as possible. They were a real problem for the people living in the suburbs, and Rose and her crew had to deal with them for small jobs, barely earning a few coins for getting rid of large slime infestations.
While most slimes were blue or green colored, red colored were very rare, and dangerous! These children knew about slimes as they had exterminated a bunch themselves, getting closer to them was a big no-no, their acid could even melt skin and leave horrid burns.
And red slimes amongst them, were the most dangerous, they were known as Fire Slimes, and were very rare as they were capable of conjuring flames! Touching one would easily burn a person, and Rose had one atop her head!
"Gyaaaah! Get off meeee!" Rose panicked, quickly grabbing the slime in her head and throwing it into the ground.
SPLASH!
The small slime, no bigger than her ten-year-old girl's head, splattered over the floor, its red slimy body motionless… Usually Slimes were covered by a strong membrane around their bodies, once such a membrane was cut down or pierced, the slime's insides would splatter off and they would often die if they didn't heal in time.
Likewise, like a balloon filled with water, if they were launched into the hard ground with a lot of strength, they would splatter into the floor and often die!
…Well, that was only for the weakest of slimes.
"I-Is it dead?"
"I hope it is!"
"It sure should be dead, slimes can't survive being splattered into the floor like that."
"Yeah…"
Rose and Coral looked at one another in confusion, they had never seen a slime that could talk before. Although to them, it was surely dead, it was still very surprising that it spoke and also so fluently at that! This slime was truly a mystery, and the more they thought about the creature, the more frightened they felt about what exactly could it had been.
"Maybe some witch's familiar? I've heard there is a witch in the suburbs, somewhere…" Said Coral.
"No way…" Sighed Rose. "Well, whatever it is, we should hurry back home now…"
As the kids began walking back home, the splattered slime in the floor slowly began to reform itself, back to a perfect shape. In fact, it was just pretending to be dead so the kids could lead him to their orphanage.
"Huh, do they have to be so rude with me… I might only be a part of my true body but I am still Drake, for fuck's sake! Seriously the main body really just uses us for anything, doesn't he? Maybe us slimes should make an uprising…" The Red Slime began to talk to himself, but quickly realized the kids were already very far away. "A dang it! Kids can be so fast nowadays…"
He swiftly began jumping over the floor while utilizing a few Skills such as [Camouflage] and [Silent Steps] to make himself undetectable. Also, he decided to use [Stealth] just in case. He had been surprised when that girl used that powerful Magic, which was boosted to rather incredible levels due to the weird tattoo in her hand.
"Come to think of it… What exactly is that tattoo in her hand? I've never seen something like that before. It… slightly resembled something like the main body's Dragon Mark both in composition and purpose, but different?" The Red Slime thought. "It was also… kind of like a curse? I'll have to check it in detail once I get there. Damn main body's still playing around with the guards…"
The Red Slime noticed the children giving several twists and turns, the suburbs were definitely bigger than the higher society areas of the city and were perhaps the true face of the city of this country, there were thousands of houses, all of them misplaced everywhere, making the whole place a giant labyrinth, it was surprising how the kids knew the entire place down to an inch.
"Ah, there it is! I see… So that's their orphanage!" The Red Slime was sitting over the roof of a house near the orphanage, seeing the kids enter the almost destroyed door. "Time for more infiltration and stealth plays!"
He quickly jumped off the building's ceiling and into the interior of the orphanage through an open window, landing straight over... a soup!
Within the kitchen, the nun named Aylen was cooking something for the kids. Everyday the only thing she could make was soup and a bit of bread, sometimes baked potatoes. Soup often consisted of seaweed and fish heads, with little meat and a lot of bones.
Although the sea was bountiful, the entire government made sure that no random people could go out fishing, even less go freely pick up whatever they wanted out of the coasts, as there were large groups of thugs guarding the place at all times.
The entire surrounding sea, which was filled with fish and tons of seafood was protected by these mafias and bands of thugs all controlled by the government in the shadows, inhibiting the ability for the people of the island to feed themselves without having to pay taxes for fishing, which poor people with barely any money could not afford…
"La, la, la~ Hmm, today's fish soup will be- Huh?! A slime?!"
"Hahaha… I might had turned your soup a bit red… Sorry about that."
"GYAAAAAH!"
