The girl wrapped herself around Jason’s legs and feet. He would have drawn his sword and sliced through her, turning her back into a puddle of goo, but it was still stuck in the wall above his head, out of reach. She then reformed her head and stretched her neck up behind his back, “Run up the wall, master!”

This girl… slime kept on changing the situation throwing him off balance. One minute she was a giant slime monster trying to kill them, then she was a cute girl… slime. One moment she was a shaking in fear, then next she… it was toppling him over and holding him suspended dangerously high above the ground. Now she had wrapped herself around his legs, which would make so he couldn’t move before. Now he is to believe that he’ll be able to just climb up the wall as easily as walking. It’s not like he had a choice other than to believe her, so, he took a tentative first step. He wasn’t glued to the ground and he found that he could move as if she wasn’t even there. She did make his feet a bit heavier, but slime didn’t seem to weigh all that much. He was thinking of asking it what to do, but thought better of it. Instead he simply ran forward, directly at the wall of the hole, leapt, and did a motion like a jump kick which seen from another angle looked very much like he was stamping his feet hard against the wall.

“Waaaaah not so hard,” the slime girl face transformed itself to a form to convey pain. Tears streamed from her eyes and her face wobbled looked as if the vibrations of him stamping his feet went straight through her body to her face.

After a pause to make sure it had actually worked, Jason took another cautious step. It worked. He could lift his feet and placing them down have them stick to the surface of the wall as if he were on the ground. It felt weird. Definitely something that would need some time to get used to if he ever did this again, but for now, he just wanted to get out of this hole and get his weapons back and that’s exactly what he did. As fast as he could he scaled the wall, grabbing sword and pulling it from the solid material that it was made out of. He was about to reach the top when suddenly he slipped and began to fall.

“Ooops!” the voice of the slime girl rang out from his legs. Jason panicked. There was nothing that he could grab onto. His back was to the ground and he wore no head protection. From this height he was likely to die. Tendrils made of ooze shot out from his legs, attaching themselves to the surface he’d just lost his footing on, and pulled him back to it. He relaxed, feeling safe, but that was a mistake. his knees bent and his body swung back. He was about to slam into the wall when the slime girl stretched her body out and caught him before he hurt himself.

Once he reached the top of the cliff, he awkwardly crawled out back onto ground. Finally had gotten back out of that hole. The slime girl slipped away from his legs, reforming into her humanoid form next to him. She reached out to help him up to his feet. He stood up straight, took a breath, and walked towards the gates to rejoin the group. They had opened it while he was in the remnants of the castle keep. For some reason once they had defeated the dungeon, the gate had become much easier to raise, but it still took some time and effort and when you considered that they had been running for their life and fighting hordes of slime zombies for several hours it was a miracle that they could get it up at all. As the two of them approached the rest the slime girl caught sight of Rina she began to bristle. She hadn’t any fur, but her form took on semi rigid spikes on it. They didn’t pose any threat. In fact, Jason placed his hand on them to find that they were like jello that would give way to any pressure, but the moment he removed his hand they returned to their original shape. “The fire witch!” the slime girl grumbled.

Jason flinched. His hand went to his sword, but then he saw where the slime girl’s eye were,” What, no. That’s Rina. She’s a friend.”

“Fire witch Rina, burned me!”

“Just be good,” he told her as he hastened to catch up with the rest of the group. The slime girl pouted, holding back for a few moments before catching back up with Jason. As he came to a stop in front of them, she wrapped her arms around him, embracing him posessively. The others turned to greet Jason only to discover that there was a girl made of slime holding on to him.

Rina was tired and just wanted to go to sleep, but the moment she saw a potential new companion she put on an energetic face and jogged over to say hello to the new person, “Hi~ Who are you!” Her voice was loud and excited.

“This is… Wait, I don’t know your.... ,” Jason began to introduce her, but by the time that he got halfway his sentence the slime girl jumped back. She went on the defensive. The light in her center pulsed feverishly, “Stay back fire witch!”

“F-fire witch?! I’m the magical girl Rina! Bringer of justice and lighting the way towards love!” Rina countered.

The slime girl was caught off guard. She thought quick, trying to come up with something to say back to Rina, “W-well. I’m the mighty maiden of purity and light, defender of precious treasures, banisher of wicked witches! I am Gabi the mighty and I will defeat you!” She grew multiple tentacles and tried to look like a monster as much as possible, intent on scaring Rina.

Rina stepped back defensively, she had figured out in the intervening time between Jason checking the treasury and him returning how to form and hold fireballs of which she did. Twin fireballs formed in her hands and she made ready to toss them at the flashing green slime girl if she made the wrong move.

Seeing the fireballs, Gabi immediately moved behind Jason and hid herself. She shaped herself that nothing of her could be seen of her unless one were to walk around him to confront her. It was good for avoiding damage, but in terms of hiding her presence, her rapidly flashing body produced a strobe effect that might induce a seizure or motion sickness making this strategy a complete failure, more so, it would alert anyone to her if they were looking for her. “Master, Fire witch Rina scary! Don’t let her hurt me!”

Rina was baffled by the turn of events. Her arms dropped to a relaxed position, “What’s going on?” she asked Jason.

“I’m about as confused as you, but she seems friendly to me. A slime girl is no more stranger than any of the other things I, and you, likely have seen here,” he replied nonchalantly.

“How many girls in your harem now?” Xev teased.

“You must be careful, my friend. The more pups and bitches an alpha has the more dangerous their life becomes,” Duk said while emitting an air of wisdom about him.

“I don’t have a harem!” Jason retorted.

Rina ignored Jason’s protestations. Instead she was currently fascinated by Gabi. She quietly approached his left side before jumping around to face her. “Don’t call me fire witch,” she shouted at the cowering slime girl. In return, Gabi returned to her now normal form, noticing that she had not summoned any fireballs. The glared at each other, daring the other to make the first move. Sparks of electricity would have been visible if this were a manga world. The tension was broken when Gabi called out, “Fire witch!” and retreated, her shape deforming as it reached out to Jason’s jeweled bracer and started disappearing. She stuck out her tongue at Rina during the entire process of returning to the gem. Rina immediately took hold of Jason’s arm and inspected the bracer and its jewel, “Gabi is the giant slime?!”

“I guess,” he replied.

“Ooooooh. she’s an enemy of justice. Magical girl Rina will defeat her!”

“You can do it Lady Rina,” Lady Apisis chimed in.

“For now, let’s put that aside. We have to search the town for anything valuable and get back to Gondaluke before we lose Gael.”

“Yep, just expanding your harem. I guess I’m not enough for you,” Xev teased once more.

“Whatever, let’s just hurry. If nothing else we have to take appraisal of the town.”

“Before that, Lord Jason, I must request a pact of friendship between my hive and your town. You are our neighbor now and we must establish an official peaceful relationship,” Apisis said.

“I don’t see why not, though, I don’t think I’m going to randomly attack your hive,” Jason said perplexed.

“And what of your people?” she pressed the issue.

“What people would those be? There aren’t any here and I don’t have…,” Jason was cut off.

“What about your harem?” Xev interjected.

“I don’t have a harem,” he firmly stated, “but even if I did what could we do to your hive?”

“I take your point, but, m’lord, this is a secure piece of land. People will settle here, even if it takes generations, it is best to establish these things long before there could ever be problems,” she held firm to her stance that they needed to set down friendly relationship guidelines.

“Alright, I get it, but does it have to be right this second?”

“I wish to help with the search through the town, but if I do, that could lead to trouble in the future. That is why I raise this issue now.” she argued.

“I think I understand,” he paused for a moment, “Hey you guys should go start looking while we figure everything out. Rina, if you go, stick with one of them,” he told the others before continuing on with Apisis, “Ok, what do we need to do?”

The two of them spent the next few hours discussing the in and outs of what this new town and Apisis’ hive could expect from interacting with each other. Agreements to how to resolve actions that they viewed as crimes were set down, whose law took precedence, access to resources, territorial boundaries, and even discussion of an embassy. Most of what was set out was basic, but when dealing with customs of different species the simplest of things became contorted very easily into something almost impossible to follow. The idea of an embassy for Apisis was strange. Members of one hive would never be allowed to take up residency in the hive of another. It just wasn’t something that they’d ever consider. Even between hives that had a great relationship, if they allowed others from another hive into theirs it would be thought of as dangerous. They’d either try to kill the queen of the hive, driven insane by their instincts over time, or integrate so completely that there would not be a point, but that was unlikely. Captives had a one in a million chance of converting to the new hive so it was much more likely that they’d pose a threat. Evolution dictates that there had to be at least some that become diplomats, but there was no opportunity for them to become a large enough portion of their population to be noticeable. Despite all the troubles they had working through these issues, Jason And Apisis did get it all worked out and a temporary official pact was formed. It would need the approval of the queen to take permanent hold, but for now, this was good enough to alleviate Apisis’ worries.