"Me!" Trevain said excitedly to become the first one of the group to try and bond with the spirit.
He waited until the spirit was close to him and slowly spread out his spiritual energy until it touched on the spirit.
The spirit turned around when it felt the familiar energy and curiously jingled as it floated towards Trevain.
"Please bond with me so I can become stronger than I am right now," Trevain said. He was told to be genuine, so he told the truth. He was doing this just for strength after all.
The spirit giggled, making sharp bell-like sounds and flew away from him. Trevain only realized when the spirit was next to Tessa that he had been rejected.
"Uh… Uh… I… I really want you to help me become stronger," Tessa said. She probably had more in her mind that she wanted to say, but the spirit suddenly arriving in front of her sent her mind into panic and in haste, she basically repeated what Trevain had just said.
The spirit giggled again and moved away.
Tessa became dejected and it was Ori's turn now. She hesitated for a bit and in that time, the spirit got bored and moved away.
"Spirit!" the princess said excitedly when it came by her. But her excitement scared away the spirit.
The spirit finally flew back to Ning who looked at it for a while. "You want to join me?" he asked.
The spirit stuck out its tongue and flew away. As it was leaving, the Slime jumped in front of the spirit and said, "join me!"
The spirit suddenly fell into a lull where a summoning circle appeared beneath its feet and was bonded to the slime.
"Ooh! It works," the slime shouted in glee.
Everyone else looked at him in surprise.
"What did you do?" Saphandra asked with a shocked expression.
"Oh, it turns out my system has a skill where I can bond with a spirit so long as they don't hate me," he said.
"So long as they don't hate you?" Ning asked.
"Yes," the slime said. "Oh, my color changed."
The slime's fake body was fine, but his real body, that was the blue slime was now purple in color.
More accurately, violet.
Everyone saw the bit of himself that the slime had put out and was more than surprised to him change color too.
They had never seen a beast change color after bonding with something else. Although to be fair, they had never seen a beast bond with anything, to begin with.
"You didn't force him to bond you, right?" Saphandra asked.
"I… don't think so?" the slime said, uncertain. "Do you want to leave me?"
The spirit that was flying around the Slime shook its head and continued giggling.
"Great," the slime got happy. "Let me give you a name then. Hmm, what should I name you?"
"What powers did you get?" the princess asked.
"I… who said that?" the slime turned around.
"I did," the princess said.
"No, not you. Someone else spoke," the slime said.
"Huh? No one else spoke though," Ning said.
"Someone did. They s— Look, there it is again. Someone just said 'I can't believe I didn't even speak.' Was that you, girl?" the slime turned towards Ori.
"Me? I did not speak," she said.
"Weren't you the one who didn't speak to the spirit?" the slime asked.
"I… wait, how do you know what I just thought?" she asked.
"Can you listen to people's thoughts?" Ning asked. "Listen to what I'm saying."
"Woah! He can listen to thoughts?" the slime repeated what he heard in his mind. "Did you say that?"
"No," Ning frowned. "I thought of someth—"
"I thought that," Trevain said. "What the hell? You can really read my thoughts."
"That girl is thinking of what to say to the next spirit she meets," the slime pointed to the Tessa as he spoke.
"Eeeh! Stop listening to my thoughts," Tessa cried out.
"No! We're not going to play your game," the slime said to the princess who gave him a bright smile now that he was hearing her thoughts.
"What about mine?" Ning asked.
The slime looked at him and shook his head. "You're as much of an enigma as always," he said.
"Hmm. System, can he not read my mind?" Ning asked.
<The spirit's ability only allows one to read the minds of those with souls.>
"Ah, no wonder," Ning thought. "It seems you can only read the minds of a select group of individuals. It should work on all humans and even a few beasts."
"Oh, nice," the slime said. "So, what should I name him? Any suggestion?"
"Tempest!" someone suggested.
"Ivy!" another one said.
"Ivory?"
"Hope is not bad," Ning said. "But it's a bit of a feminine name."
"Death!" the slime thought.
""NO!!!"" multiple people refuse at once.
"How about Frost?" Saphandra suggested.
"Frost?" the slime asked and turned to the spirit who seemed excited with that name.
"Uh, okay. I will call you Frost now," the slime said and the naming ceremony was complete.
"I wonder when we will come across the next one," Tessa spoke to herself.
"Don't worry, we have 4 weeks to go," Ning said.
"We're in the rainforest. Or was that a rhetorical question?" the slime asked.
"What?" Ning was confused.
"What?" the slime was confused as well.
"What are you talking about?" Ning asked.
"Don't ask me. She was the one who asked where she was," the slime said, pointing to Saphandra.
"Yeah, I have no idea what you mean by that," Saphandra said.
"Huh? Weird," the slime thought to himself.
"Now that you have the spirit, do you want to leave?" Ning asked the slime.
"No, I want to roam more places," the slime said. "It's a once in a thirty-year opportunity right?"
Ning smiled. "It is. Let's go then."
"Where are we going next?" Tessa asked.
"Well, the volcano might be a good choice. Let's see if there are any spirits at its base or its mouth."
