Chronicle, Chapter 2!

It's been a fucking eternity since the last one, but I finally finished writing the second chapter of my story! EXCITEMENT!

“Well. It's certainly impressive up close, isn't it?” Zaabo remarked from his perch on Vale's shoulder, as the three tilted their gazes skyward. It had only been about a thirty minute carriage ride from the village to the tower. Everyone had seen the tower before; it was always visible in the skyline no matter where you were due to its sheer size. But actually standing before it was something different entirely.

It wasn't especially fancy or decorative, but its absolute, total enormity made up for that. The way it loomed over everything could really only be described as “towering”. The higher floors reached the clouds lazily drifting through the sky and then passed them in its endless upwards climb, until gradually disappearing from sight. Its width was less noticable, but still significant; it took up an absolutely massive area of the forest it was located in. It was made up primarily of massive, beige stone blocks, but with blocks of other colors placed sporadically throughout the structure. The entrance, a massive arched gate made of some sort of red metal, was the size of a castle drawbridge. Finally, all the way up the tower, open, arch-shaped windows were located in evenly-spaced lines wrapping all the way around the tower's sides. Though probably unintentionally, the windows demonstrated what an active and diverse place the tower was. One had a thick tree branch sprouting out of it, a massive, thick stream of black smoke was constantly pouring out of another one above it, an enormous centipede was emerging from yet another to crawl up the side of the tower, ghostly lights hovered in and out of another one, and in several more the vague colors and shapes of monsters or possibly other travellers could be made out.

Fuga was bristling with excitement, his usual goofy grin spread across his entire face as he tried to take it all in. It was obvious he was trying to resist charging blindly through the door and into the tower. Vale, however, simply stared upwards at the tower, his expression somewhat blank and unreadable; Zaabo's expression similarly hard to read, but that was mostly due to his completely inhuman face. After a few moments of the trio staring in silence and taking it in, Zaabo turned to Fuga and Vale.

“So.....shall we go inside?” He proposed. Vale glanced at him and nodded. For Fuga, however, that was less of a suggestion than it was permission to charge blindly into action.

“YAHOO!” Fuga whooped, thrusting both fists into the air and tearing off towards the tower's gate as Vale and Zaabo flinched in surprise. As he came close, the gate began to slowly creak open on its own.

“H-Hey, kid, wait up! God, you're such a spaz!” Zaabo sputtered, lifting off Vale's shoulder and fluttering after him as fast as he could. Vale stared blankly after them, then slowly followed.

The immediate interior of the tower was nothing terribly impressive; a simple stone entryway greeted them with a long, tattered strip of red carpet upon the ground, worn down from years upon years of boots, claws, scales and who knows what else tromping over it. The carpet led to a carved stone drinking fountain bullt into the wall at the end of the room, a statue of a roaring dragon's head constantly spewing a torrent of sparkling water into the basin below. Hung from the ceiling was a simple cast-iron chandelier, its candles left unlit. On both the left and right walls of the entryway were heavy stone doors with skull patterns over their entrances.

Fuga gazed around in mild awe as Zaabo and Vale trailed in behind him. Fuga briefly glanced back, then resumed gazing around the room.

“Wow...this is pretty cool, but...isn't it a bit empty?” Fuga asked. “It doesn't look like there's anything in this room.”

“Well, duh, kid. This is just the entryway. Once we go through one of those doors we'll have to deal with traps and monsters and the like.” Zaabo said, fluttering past him to perch on the dragon head at the end of the room. He tilted his head/body downwards to peer at the water a bit, then pulled it back up to look at Fuga and Vale. “Mm, just as I thought. Magic fountain. Drinking from it will make you better if you're wounded or something.”

Fuga blinked at him as Vale slowly walked up beside him. “You could tell from just looking at it?” he asked, equal parts confused and impressed.

Zaabo huffed and pulled himself up into a haughty pose, his mouth twisting into a prideful smile. “Believe me, I've seen the inside of quite my share of dungeons. Stuff like this is just common sense to me.” He lifted off from the dragon head and fluttered back over to the two kids, settling down on Vale's shoulder and turning to face Fuga. “So if you're wondering something in that naïve little head of yours, just ask me about it.” Vale remained quiet, but rolled his eyes. He looked at Fuga.

“So....what door do you think we should go through?” he asked quietly. Fuga screwed up his face into a look of deep thought as he looked back and forth between the two doors. They looked practically identical....save for an odd glistening spot on the left one that caught his eye. Walking over to investigate with, it turned out that the door was spattered with large shiny splotches of some sort of dried mucus similar to the trails left by slugs.

“Hmm. If those splotches are any indication, I'm betting we'll find slimes in there.” Zaabo muttered.

“Ooh! Slimes are cool!” Fuga said excitedly, turning his head to look at Zaabo with a face of eager anticipation. “Let's go in this one!”

“I'm not sure what exactly your definition of 'cool' is, but okay.” Zaabo said skeptically, tilting on his foot to look at Vale. Vale nodded slowly. Fuga beamed and turned back to the door; as he did so, the eyes of the skull carving above it gleamed, and the door slowly slid open, the stone grinding noisily as it did so. Fuga blinked in mild surprise.

“...How'd it know we'd decided to go in?” Fuga asked, twisting his head back to Zaabo with a confused expression as he pointed a finger at the door. Zaabo made a shrugging gesture with his wings.

“Eh, it's a mysterious dungeon. Just roll with it.” Zaabo replied. Fuga raised an eyebrow.

“I thought you said you knew all about this stuff.” Fuga muttered, sounding mildly disappointed.

Zaabo tilted to one side and rolled his eye. “It doesn't really matter, does it? Come on, let's go.” he replied curtly, nudging Vale's face with the corner of his wing. Vale glanced at him briefly, then walked through the door, Fuga following immediately.

The next room was similarly adorned; a large, curved hallway greeted them, apparently bent to conform to the shape of the tower. Another long, tattered red carpet was placed upon the ground, almost like a guiding arrow to the end of the hall. More stone dragon heads were mounted along the right wall in a perfect line. For an adult, they would be at about head height, but Fuga and Vale were so short that their hats barely brushed them. The hall was completely silent; not a single thing could be heard apart from the noise of their boots upon the stone.

“Empty.” Vale remarked, his eyebrows raising in mild surprise. Fuga frowned.

“There's gotta be something in this hallway. There's no way it would be this boring.” He insisted, glancing around before taking a few tentative steps down the hall.

A few moments after he did, Zaabo's ears perked up. “Wait a tick. There's something here. Listen.” The two glanced at him. Sure enough, a very faint noise could be heard; the sound of something sloshing and squishing, slowly growing louder.

Behind Fuga, a small drip of red liquid fell from the ceiling, causing him to whirl around.

Looking up, the three saw a three-foot wide gob of transparent red jelly clinging to the ceiling in front of them. A pair of eyeballs with trailing nerves floated in its body, as well as a strange, fleshy organ consisting of many trumpet-like tubes that continuously extended and contracted, circulating the ooze within its body like a heart. With a disgusting squelch, it peeled itself off the ceiling and dropped down to land on the carpet with a wet splat, flattening out into a puddle from the impact before reconstituting itself into a round blob. A foul odor similar to rotten fruit wafted from it.

Fuga's wary gaze almost immediately transmogrified into an excited smile, his eyes lighting up with joy. “It's a sliiiiiiime!” he shouted, his voice full of the same kind of overwhelming glee as a kid getting the best toy ever for their birthday. Vale flinched slightly in alarm, while the slime remained unresponsive and simply stared at him blankly as he rushed up to it and crouched down to get a better look, shoving his face right up in front of it.

“What are you getting so excited for? It's just a slime, there's probably like a thousand of them around here.” Zaabo questioned him

“Oh shut up, it's the first time I've seen a real one! It's cool!” Fuga replied grumpily before turning his full, wide-eyed attention back to the slime. However, instead of simply sitting in place, it had begun to jiggle; slightly at first, then with increasingly violent motion. “Eh, uh, what's it doing?” he asked, mildly confused.

“Get back, moron, it's about to attack you!” Zaabo shouted. No sooner than Fuga had began to scramble back in response did the slime launch itself into the air towards him in a high arc, with the projected landing spot being directly on his face.

However, with a sudden *SHOOP*, a small shard of ice shot through the air and lodged itself in the slime's body, causing it to lose its trajectory and drop to the ground with a splat. Pulling itself back up, the slime squashed itself down and made a rapid series of leaps backwards, suddenly putting a couple yards distance between it and Fuga. Looking back, Fuga saw Vale with one hand outstretched and his finger pointed, small wisps of magical energy coming off of it like the barrel of a smoking gun.

“.....It was gonna hit you.” Vale said blankly, expressionless as ever.

“...I coulda handled it.” Fuga pouted, feeling like a loser due to being saved from monster attack twice in a row by now. Turning his attention back to the slime, he noticed it squashing itself down for another leap. Pulling himself back up, he reached for the sword stowed in his knapsack in preparation for another attack.

Instead, however, it made a short leap into the air, landing forcefully on a section of the carpet in front of it and causing an audible click to echo through the halls. Turning tail, it leapt down the hall at a rapid pace, turning around the bend in the hall and disappearing from view. A loud grinding began to echo throughout hall, sounding as if it was coming from within every inch of the walls and floor. The unsettled trio cast their gazes about the dungeon, trying to figure out what was happening.

Fuga figured it out with about a second to spare.

“DUCK!” he shouted, lunging forward and tackling Vale to the floor (and by extension Zaabo, who fell off Vale's shoulder and tumbled a few feet away) as massive, thick streams of fire erupted from the mouths of the stone dragon heads, forming a line of flames spanning the entire hallway. After a few moments, the heads all made a sputtering noise, and the flames came to a stop. However, the grinding noise continued to permeate the hall.

Pulling himself up off Vale (who was sweating bullets and feeling extremely awkward from the close proximity), Fuga squinted down the hallway. “I guess that slime activated those traps then.....”

“You think, kid?” Zaabo asked sardonically as he picked himself up off the ground, Vale propping himself up as well. “There's probably more where that came from. We should be careful.”

Instead of being wary, however, Fuga's eyes lit up brighter than ever before as he turned around to beam at the two, who gave him a quizzical stare in response. “This is where the adventure really begins! Let's go, guys!” he shouted excitedly. And with that, he turned around and charged down the hall as fast as his legs could take him.

“Oy! Wait up-aaaagh, this kid.” Zaabo sighed, slapping a wing against his face. Vale gave him an awkward smile and shrug and pulled himself to his feet, Zaabo fluttering up off the ground to meet him at about head height. “Honestly, I don't know what you see in this guy.” Zaabo muttered to himself as Vale started running after him. Though he couldn't explain why, as they dashed down the hall, Vale was feeling excited as well.

It wasn't long before the slime came into view once again, its backs turned to them. Alerted by their footsteps, it turned around to look at them briefly before leaping onto another hidden switch, causing another loud click. Unfortunately for it, this time Fuga wouldn't be caught off guard as the boy immediately noticed the right wall shifting slightly.

“Quick, to the left!” Fuga shouted over his shoulder at Vale as he shifted to the left side of the hall and continued running. Taking his cue, Vale and Zaabo moved to the left wall as part of the right wall opened up to reveal a network of holes and a massive cluster of spears shot out, stopping just short of impaling them and causing Vale to flinch violently. Fuga kept running, closing the distance between him and the slime rapidly. The slime turned tail and fled, bouncing down the hall at a rapid pace.

“C'mon, we can't let it get away!” Fuga shouted over his shoulder, his grin and voice exposing just how incredibly exciting and fun he found all of this. Zaabo stared vacantly in disbelief as Vale recovered and continued running, trying to close the distance Fuga had put between the two.

As the chase continued, the slime leapt forward and slammed onto another switch, causing the floor to drop away to reveal a pit of spikes. Fuga leapt as far as he could, nearly falling short of the other side but grabbing onto the ledge and scrabbling his way up. Another dropped a bomb in their path which Fuga punted out the window, yet another shot a series of knives which Fuga ducked easily, and another still caused a massive guillotine-like blade to drop from the ceiling, which Fuga clumsily rolled out of the way of, scrambling back to his feet as fast as he could to keep running.

“Dang, he's actually not that bad.” Zaabo remarked, the two staying behind just enough to not have to dodge the traps too.

Eventually, the hallway ended, terminating in a round, mostly empty chamber with a metal gate blocking a staircase to the upper floors of the tower on the right side. Several holes patterned the upper parts of the walls, forming a ring around the chamber. On the far side was a door to another chamber, and a mysterious stone device. The device's base consisted of two stacked wide-yet-short stone cylinders, the one on top slightly smaller than the one on the bottom. Emerging from the center was a thinner, taller cylinder that continuously pumped up and down at a slow rate, as well as two long rectangular shapes that, despite having no physical connection to the device, orbited the smaller cylinder continuously. On top of the cylinder was a rotating blue cube covered in mysterious runes.

The slime, having nowhere to run to, hopped into the center of the room and simply turned to watch as the adventurers bore down on it. In a matter of seconds, the two of them joined the slime in the room.

“This thing's actually pretty clever for a slime.” Zaabo remarked, as Vale pulled up his hands in preparation for a magic spell and Fuga pulled his sword out from his knapsack.

“Wonder if it's got any more tricks up its sleeves,” Fuga pondered, repeatedly stealing glances at the enigmatic device in the back of the room before shifting his attention back to the slime. He was trying to remain focused on the job at hand, but was obviously having some slight difficulties.

With a sudden SHLLLLOOOP noise, another slime popped out of one of the holes in the wall and plopped into the room, followed by another, and another. Before long, a whole gaggle of differently-colored slimes had entered the room and ganged up into a roughly circular formation, wobbling and jiggling in preparation for battle.

The trio of adventurers exchanged glances, then wordlessly prepared for battle; Fuga pulling his sword out of his knapsack, Vale putting his hands together and quietly murmuring, and Zaabo floating into the air between the two.

“Hehe, this is kind of cool, isn't it?” Fuga asked, glancing over towards Vale and Zaabo with a smile.

Before either of them could respond, the group of slimes launched themselves towards the adventurers with a cacophony of SCHPLURTS, hurtling through the air towards them like a massive volley of bulbous, gelatinous arrows. Snapping to attention, Vale chanted an incantation and shot a flurry of ice shards, knocking a couple off their trajectory to clumsily splat to the ground to either side of him, before dodging to the side to avoid another that slipped through. Fuga, though intimidated by the huge mass of slimes hurtling towards him, pulled back and swung his sword with all his might as one was a moment from hitting him, neatly bisecting it in two. As the two pieces flew harmlessly past his head, bits of the gelatin splattered his face, the noxiously sweet odor making him wince. This momentary distraction allowed another slime to barrel into his stomach, knocking his breath away and causing him to stagger back while the slime rebounded off and plopped to the ground.

As he regained his breath, he realized the barrage had stopped and looked around. Bits and globs of slime were spattered on the ground.

“What're they up to?” He heard Zaabo's voice murmur, and turned around to realize the other two adventurers had turned to face the remaining slimes. They'd managed to dispose of a few of them during the barrage, but the survivors had regrouped and were clustering together again. Zaabo glanced over at him. “Try to keep up, kid,” he muttered before turning his attention back to the slimes. Fuga opened his mouth to say something, but then realized that Zaabo and Vale hadn't been hit at all during the barrage; unlike him, they seemed to be decisively on top of things.

Before Fuga had time to delve into thoughts about how he kind of sucks, however, the slimes had bunched together to form a gigantic ball of squishy, glistening gelatin and begun to slowly roll towards them.

“Uh, Zaabo, do slimes normally do this?” Fuga asked nervously, the ball gaining momentum at an alarming pace.

“No, not really!” Zaabo responded quickly. “RUN!”

Leaping aside, the ball hurtled past them as the three began to run back down the hall. The glistening sphere smashed into the wall behind them with an enormous thud, the stone cracking from the speed and the combined weight of the slimes. Slowly, it began to build up momentum once again as it rolled down the corridor after them.

“Cripes, it's gonna bowl us over at this rate!” Zaabo shouted as they vaulted over the guillotine blade the slime had tried to drop on them earlier. Looking back at their pursuer, they were alarmed to see the guillotine rise back up into the ceiling before the ball got to it, giving it free passage.

“Why'd it go back up for them and not for us?!” Fuga wailed.

Zaabo thought for a moment. “Well, maybe it hit the trap switch again, and doing that caused it to reset the trap......” His ears perked up, and his mouth widened. “Wait, I've got an idea!”

“I'm all ears!” Fuga shouted, running harder and faster than before as they dashed past the knife trap and started to approach the spiked pit.

“Find the switch for that pit and hit it! We don't have much time!” Zaabo cried. As they approached the pit, Fuga noticed a raised tile underneath the carpet that had a sheen of dried slime on it. A half-second afterward, Vale dashed forward and stomped it before Fuga could do anything; apparently he'd noticed it long before Fuga did. The hidden trapdoor over the spike pit swiftly closed itself up, leaving no sign it was ever there.

“Okay, good job. Now we wait.” Zaabo muttered, swiftly stopping and turning to look at the ball bearing down on them, the two children awkwardly skidding to a halt behind him.

“What?!” Fuga wailed in a panic.

“Trust me!” he said as the ball bore down on them rapidly. The trio waited tensely, the ball mere moments away from impact.

“DODGE!” Zaabo shouted. On cue, the three of them leapt to the side as the ball hurled past them, rolling over the switch for the pit in the process. The floor gave way and the pit opened once more before the slimes could react, bouncing off the far corner of the pit and tumbling in. A massive thud accompanied by the squelch of spikes penetrating slime echoed from the pit, followed by silence. Slowly, the three peeled themselves off the edges of the hall.

“Well. I guess that's this room clear then, huh?” Fuga said, collapsing onto his rump. Vale stared at him, then looked at the splotch on his chest where one of the slimes impacted. Fuga looked at him quizzically. “What's up?” Vale hesitated, then looked away shyly. Zaabo rolled his eye.

“I think Vale's wondering if you're okay. He's not that good at expressing himself.” Zaabo said. Fuga hesitated, then smiled as he picked himself up and dusted himself off, attempting to wipe some of the goo off his chest.

“I'm totally fine. Come on, they don't hit that hard.” Vale turned to look at him hesitantly, then gave a shy smile. Fuga laughed as the three began to walk down the hall for the third time. “Man, you guys are cool!” he remarked. “How'd you get so good at this stuff?”

“Ehh, that's a bit of a long story.” Zaabo cut in. “We've been wandering for quite a while, so Vale's managed to get in lots of practice and been in a couple fights here and there.”

Fuga put his hands behind his head. “Man, it shows. Maybe once we do more of this I'll get that good at fighting...” he trailed off, looking down.

Zaabo looked at him skeptically then sighed. “Eh, you're new to this. It can't be helped.” Vale reached out nervously, nearly pulling his arm back, then patted him on the back. Fuga stopped and looked at him, then beamed his grin at him once more.

Soon, the three of them reached the now-empty chamber at the end of the hall once again. As they approached, the metal gate blocking the staircase lifted with a grinding, metallic noise.

“So I see you've proven your worth.” a rich, deep voice emanated from seemingly everywhere, causing the three to look wildly around.

Another SHLOOOOP came from the wall holes as a slime heart the size of a human head popped out, bouncing and tumbling into the center of the room. Soon, the noise of rushing liquid filled the chamber, and thick streams of clear gelatin spewed from the wall holes, splattering upon the ground and gathering around the heart as if it was magnetically attracted to it. As the gelatin gathered, it began to rise up around the heart to form a bulbous, round shape. As it neared completion and the streams subsided, two massive eyeballs and a crown popped out and landed in the slime, and the goo and assorted parts consolidated themselves into a new figure.

Sitting in the chamber now was another slime, but this one was of enormous proportions; it was nearly seven feet wide and stood a good few heads above the kids. Unlike the others, it didn't have a uniform color, but instead colors swirled about its mostly-clear body like the surface of a soap bubble. Perched atop its body was a large, pointed golden crown lined with sapphires and emeralds, through the top of which a small plume of slime emerged. Unlike the pungent odor of the other slimes, it smelled sweet like a ripe pear, which was fortunate because its odor filled the room almost instantly. Its eyes briefly scanned the room and promptly locked onto the unsettled party of adventurers, Vale raising his hands in preparation for spellcasting.

“Wait, a bunch of kids?” the slime blurted out in a disbelieving tone, breaking the nervous atmosphere. “My specially trained slimes were bested by children?” He let out a sigh, his bulbous shape sagging slightly. “I suppose our weakness can't be helped....”

The adventurers stared at the saddened king slime for a few moments. “Uhm, is something wrong?” Fuga asked awkwardly, Zaabo and Vale glancing at him briefly before turning their cautious attention back to the enormous slime. At this, the king slime snapped back into his usual round shape and cleared his throat-equivalent.

“Ah, yes. I, the great and honorable King Jelly, have a request of you....um....adventurers.” He said, slowly eyeballing the trio skeptically for a moment. “Of course, there would be a fantastic reward for you if you complete it. What say you?”

Zaabo eyed him warily and turned to Vale and Fuga. “I dunno, man, I've seen my fair share of monster trickery. This guy could easily just be sending us-”

“I wanna do it!” Fuga said, cutting him off with a goofy grin. Vale looked between the two, brow furrowed.

“Kid, you didn't even let me finish.” Zaabo said, his mouth turning into a frown. “You can't just trust random monsters, even if they're royalty.”

“We don't even know what he wants us to do yet, you can't just decide stuff like that so soon.” Fuga said, crossing his arms with a stern frown. He then shifted back to his excited smile. “Besides, I wanna hear about that reward!”

Zaabo stared at him, then glanced back at the slime for a moment, who was watching them expectantly. “Eh, guess it couldn't hurt.” he said with a sigh.

King Jelly tilted forward in a gesture resembling a bow. “Thank you, kind adventurers. This task is quite important, I assure you; not just to me, but the welfare of the tower as well.” he took a deep breath, inflating slightly from doing so. “Recently, a golem has been stomping about the first two floors, relentlessly hunting down and exterminating all the monsters it sees. As you can imagine, it's quite disruptive and damaging to the fabulous monster ecosystems we have set up here, but it's also quite bad for you adventurers as well. Can you imagine exploring a dungeon without any monsters in it?”

“That'd be awful!” Fuga gasped in shock. “It'd be so boring!”

“It would, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, if this persists, that may become a reality on the first and second floors.” King Jelly said matter-of-factly. He took a deep breath before continuing. “Since I'm assigned to keep watch over the first few floors, I've naturally tried to stop him, but nothing seems to work! It's simply too sturdy an enemy for our kind to damage. The cursed thing's even killed some of my prized slimes!” he said, quivering with anger at the thought of it.

“Uh, didn't we kill a bunch of your slimes too? Like, they fell in a pit and got stabbed.” Fuga asked, sounding slightly confused. King Jelly puffed himself up proudly in response.

“Ha ha! No worries, those guys will be just fine. Us slimes may be easy to beat, but we're nearly impossible to actually kill. You can impale us, cut us in half, or splatter us all over the walls, but we'll still be fine by the end of the day.” He paused, then deflated slightly, eyes cast downward sorrowfully. “As you can imagine, though, it makes it all the more troubling that the cursed construct is able to outright kill them.....” He returned to normal, and fixed the trio with a sharp gaze. “Therefore, this is the task I ask of you; get rid of that accursed golem! I don't care how you do it, just get rid of the blasted thing.”

“....why are you asking us?” Vale said, eying the slime king warily. His hands were still in a spellcasting gesture.

“Yeah, uh, why are you asking us to do this? Aren't there better candidates for it then a couple of kids?” Zaabo said, shooting a skeptical glance at Fuga, who was listening and watching the king with rapt attention. King Jelly blinked a bit, then looked awkwardly to the side.

“Well, um, frankly, you're the only adventurers thus far who've been willing to hear me out. Whenever I appear to try and talk to other adventurers they just assume I'm here to fight them.” he said, sighing. “Usually that IS my duty, but I have more important things to worry about than being a stage one boss right now.” He looked back at them. “Come on. I'm in a very tight spot at the moment. I can give you my royal oath that it will be worth your while if you help me out.”

The trio stared at him. His air of royal bravado was faltering, and they could see now that his bulbous eyes showed signs of exhaustion. He was obviously starting to get tired and desperate.

“Seems legit.” Zaabo said, after a long pause. “I guess he's not trying to trick us or anything.” Vale slowly lowered his hands from his spellcasting pose.

“Does that mean it's okay to help him?” Fuga said, turning to Zaabo expectantly. Zaabo landed on Vale's shoulder and made a shrugging gesture with his wings. Fuga smiled and turned back to King Jelly. “Awright, we're in!” he said enthusiastically.

The king let out a sputtery sigh of relief. “Thank you, children. I just hope you'll figure something out. May I have your names?”

“I'm Fuga! This is my buddy Vale and his buddy Zaabo.” Fuga said, gesturing towards them.

“Um, 'buddy' may not be exactly the right word-” Zaabo tried to interject, but was cut off.

“I swear on my helmet we won't let you down!” Fuga continued, giving a salute and beaming a wide grin at the massive slime. King Jelly blinked, then seemed to relax somehow.

“Well, I'm not sure of your capabilities, but your confidence is reassuring at least.” the king slime said, letting out a deep and hearty chuckle. He slowly slid over to the enigmatic device situated at the back of the room, and looked back at the trio. “Come over here, will you? There's something you should do before you head to the next floor.” The trio exchanged glances, then walked over to the magical device, Fuga watching the spinning cube with wonder.

“This is the transit station. Once you record a bit of your essence in one of these, you can warp back to it at any time from any other transit station you find in the tower. There's at least one in every chamber. It's rather nice, isn't it?” He said cordially, glancing towards the cube and then back towards the adventurers. “Normally you're supposed to beat me as your first major challenge before you're allowed to use them, but, well, I can make an exception for you. Fuga, hold out your hand, will you?” Without a hint of hesitation, Fuga stuck out his right hand. “There's a good boy.” King Jelly said warmly. With a gross squelching noise, he squashed down slightly and launched a small glob of slime directly onto his hand, causing Fuga to recoil in surprise.

“What'd you do that for?!” he asked indignantly. King Jelly was unperturbed.

“Now that you have my slime on you, if you touch the magic cube it'll count as you having beaten me and you can record your essence here.” He glanced at Zaabo and Vale, who were looking at the slime in Fuga's hand quizzically. “You two better get some of that stuff on you too, if you want to use the transit station....” he trailed off, sounding expectant. The two looked at him skeptically, and King Jelly rolled his massive eyes in response. “Come on, a little slime won't hurt you!”

Hesitantly, the two dipped a single finger (or toe, in Zaabo's case) in the slime. Reaching up, the three touched a single slime-coated digit to the spinning magic cube. The cube halted, glowed a dark green, and emitted a droning noise before resuming its constant rotation.

“That's it! Now you'll be able to use these handy devices anytime you like. All you have to do is touch them to get your essence recorded, though uh, you won't need my slime to do it from now on.” King Jelly explained. In response, Fuga flung the slime off his hand and wiped himself off on his pants.

“So uh, can we get a move on now?” Fuga asked, clearly impatient and eager to go try to fight more things.

“Actually, there is one more thing.” King Jelly declared, causing Fuga to moan in irritation and Vale to cross his arms. The king fixed his massive eyes on Zaabo, who was fluttering in the air beside Vale. “Zaabo, was it? I believe it would be best if you stayed behind.” he said , his tone somewhat apologetic. Vale's eyes widened in surprise, and Zaabo's mouth-eye popped open all the way to show his alarm.

“What?! Why?!” Zaabo spat angrily, his mouth set into a scowl.

“The golem is seeking out and hunting down every monster it sees relentlessly. You are, in fact, a monster.” King Jelly said matter-of-factly, unperturbed by Zaabo's anger. “If you go with the children, there's no doubt that it'll try to hunt you down like the rest of them.”

“So what, you think I'm gonna slow them down or something?” Zaabo said, still angry. “It's my job to protect Vale! I'm not just gonna leave him!”

“If you want him to be safe, then that's only more reason for you to stay behind.” the king slime replied gravely, fixing a sharp gaze on Zaabo. “If the children try to protect you from the golem, it'll label them as enemies and hunt them down too. The odds of their safety are much better if you don't come.” Vale and Fuga looked at each other nervously as Zaabo's expression shifted into a startled frown.

“That's-” Zaabo sputtered, unsure what to say. “But-it's dangerous!”

Footsteps echoed as Fuga walked up to Zaabo and patted him on the back, causing him to swivel around. He gave the flustered bat a smile.

“I'm pretty sure Vale can handle it.” Fuga said calmly, trying to reassure him. “Besides, he won't be alone. I'll be with him too!”

“But you're still a greenhorn! How can I trust you to not make some stupid mistake and get him killed?! Besides, so far Vale's been the one protecting you!” Zaabo spat angrily. Fuga's smile almost immediately inverted itself into a frown, his words cutting deep.

“But-I-” Fuga stuttered, his confidence shattered.

Vale, watching wide-eyed, was uncertain what to do. He knew by now that trust was a feeble thing that could be easily be broken, and the world was a dangerous place. Zaabo, his longtime companion, was pretty much the only person so far he had really trusted. He was someone he could always rely on in a world where he thought you could never rely on much of anything.

Yet when he looked at Fuga, he realized that somehow, this straightforward, enthusiastic goofball was someone he could trust completely.

“.....We had an agreement.” Vale spoke up at long last, his voice serious and cutting through the atmosphere. Fuga and Vale both turned to stare at him. “You said that if Fuga beat you, he would be worth having around. He beat you, so he's worth having around.” Vale said plainly, fixing Zaabo with a serious gaze and causing him to become even more flustered. Fuga turned back to him, a smile plastered on his face once more. Vale gave Zaabo a small, yet awkward smile in an attempt to reassure him. “.....We'll be fine.”

Zaabo plopped to the floor and looked down, defeated. “Fine, fine. I'll stay here,” he sighed. He looked back up at the two children, a worried frown across his face. “Just....promise me you won't get yourselves killed, alright?”

Fuga grinned and gave another salute. “You can count on me! Come on Vale, let's go get that golem!” He shouted excitedly, turning and running up the staircase to the next floor. Vale shrugged sheepishly, then took off after him, Zaabo and the King Jelly watching as the two disappeared from view.

“Well, you certainly can't fault his enthusiasm.” the king muttered.

“....This is just another part of the tower?” Fuga gasped, his jaw hanging open. Vale stared wide-eyed, unsure what to make of what they saw.

Though they had just emerged from the staircase to enter the next chamber up, what sprawled out before them was a vast, lush grassland that seemed too big to possibly be contained inside any sort of building. The waist-high grasses sprawled on for what seemed like an eternity, broken up only by the occasional tree, shrub, or boulder, as well as a small pond at the far end of the chamber. Wind gently blew in through the arch-shaped windows along the walls, causing the grasses to rustle and waver gently. Various creatures dotted the landscape; bipedal goats grazing, a massive, pale green tiger trying to sneak up upon a moose-like creature with enormous antlers the size of its body, and rainbow-colored birds swooping overhead and perching amongst the trees and rocks to let out shrill cries. It was a picture-perfect example of naturalistic beauty.

“This is SO COOL!” Fuga shouted excitedly while thrusting both fists in the air, causing birds to scatter and goats to look up in alarm. He quickly lowered his arms and covered his mouth timidly. “Oops.” He turned his to Vale, who looked at him blankly. “So, Vale, how do think we should go about finding this golem?” Vale's eyes widened and he looked away nervously. Fuga frowned, evidently somewhat surprised by this. “Dangit, I was assuming you'd know.”

“....Maybe we should have asked King Jelly for more information before we left.” Vale said pointedly. Fuga looked away awkwardly.

“Er, yeah. Maybe we should-” he began, but was cut off as a low thud reverberated across the plains. “Wait, did you hear that?” he asked, turning and peering across the plains as Vale moved next to him, glancing about the incredibly spacious chamber. Another thud echoed, followed by another. The thuds continued, falling into a steady rhythm.

“There!” Fuga shouted, pointing off into the distance. Vale squinted in the direction Fuga gestured towards.

Far across the plains, a tall, beige figure lumbered into view. As it came closer, more and more of its details could be made out; it was undoubtedly the golem. Its body was made entirely of a light beige stone. A large sphere with a V emblazoned on it made up the torso, a cylinder with two small, dotted orange eyes made of some sort of glass perched atop it to form the head, and on the bottom of the sphere a smooth semicircle of stone was attached, serving as the hip joints for its cylindrical legs, which were a bit shorter than its torso. Two shoulder pads were also placed on the upper part of its body, from which a pair of long arms hung down. Its arms were made up of several floating cylinders of stone that somehow connected to each other via magic, each one ending in a three-fingered hand with a small gemstone embedded in the back of it. They were of massive length-the inches of empty space between each cylinder in its arms allowed its hands to drag along the ground loosely as it plodded along. As it came closer, its heavy footsteps startled the goats and caused them to flee in various directions along with the moose-like creature, much to the massive feline's chagrin. Snarling furiously, it turned and bounded towards the noisy intruder.

The golem stopped in its tracks, tilting downwards slightly to gaze at the incoming assailant with its small, unblinking eyes.

As it lifted its dragging arms off the ground, pulling their segments closer together in the process, the words “MONSTERS DETECTED. ENTERING JUSTICE MODE” echoed from within its head in a deep, monotonous rumble as the tiger lunged forward.

Before it got within striking range, two thin beams of bright red light shot from its beady eyes, simultaneously blasting the big cat out of the air and setting it on fire. As it crashed to the ground, the golem fired another laser blast where it landed, causing a burst of fire that set the grasses around its (now thoroughly immolated) corpse ablaze. The threat eliminated, it twirled clumsily and made a dynamic victory pose with its arms, monotonously rumbling something about “VICTORY JUSTICE”. before continuing to tromp forward, its head spinning 360 degrees to scan for more monsters, occasionally issuing a laser blast towards seemingly random creatures, the plains now dominated by fires and fleeing creatures.

A lump formed in the back of Vale's throat, and Fuga simply stared dumbfounded.

However, it only took a few seconds for Fuga to get over it, whip his sword out, and start tearing angrily across the plains towards the golem, producing the loudest roar his little lungs could muster. “W-wait! Fuga!” Vale sputtered, once again trailing after him as fast as he could. It only took a few seconds for Fuga to get right up next to the rampaging goliath, the golem seemingly failing to notice him somehow.

“FIGHT ME!” Fuga shouted up at the golem, causing it to briefly stop and turn its attention to him as Vale caught up. Tilting its head downwards slightly to look at the small boy glaring up at it, it locked its beady eyes with his, apparently analyzing him. After a few seconds, however, it broke eye contact and simply resumed tromping loudly along the plains. Fuga glared at it disbelievingly. “Are you ignoring me, you jerk?!” He shouted after it, about to take pursuit before Vale grabbed his sleeve. Fuga looked back at him, still steaming mad. “What?! We've gotta stop that thing!” he shouted, causing Vale to recoil timidly.

“Fuga, we don't stand a chance against that thing!” Vale said, obviously afraid. Fuga ignored him and yanked his sleeve from him, causing Vale to flinch again.

“Lemme go! I gotta beat that thing!” Fuga spat angrily, beginning to stomp off after it. Vale, thinking only of trying to keep Fuga from getting himself killed, lunged after him and grabbed onto the first thing he could reach; the horns on his helmet. Accidentally pulling the both of them to the ground, Fuga's helmet flew off and landed somewhere in the grass behind them with a soft thud.

As the golem's rotating head continued to scan the area, it passed over the two children once more, and this time stopped. With his helmet gone, Fuga's two small horns were on full display. Sitting back up and groaning, Fuga snapped to attention and looked up at the golem in blank surprise as it tromped over and towered over the two prone children.

“MONSTERS DETECTED,” it rumbled monotonously once again. Its eyes glowed ominously.

Fuga barely rolled out of the way as a laser tore into the ground where he once was, torching the grass down to cinders. He clambered to his feet and swung at its leg with his sword with all his might, only for it to bounce harmlessly off without so much as a scratch. In fact, it kind of hurt Fuga's hands instead. Leaping back to avoid another laser, he found himself next to Vale, still prone on the ground with his fearful eyes wide. He looked down at him, Vale looking back up at him (but mostly staring at his horns).

“Okay yeah you were right.” Fuga said quickly, grabbing Vale by the arm and yanking him to his feet. “RUN!”

The two began to tear through the plains as fast as their legs could take them, the golem tromping after them at a slightly faster rate than usual with its eyes focused on them completely. Every few seconds, it issued a laser beam that came only inches from searing them each time as they scrambled frantically through the tall grass, snakes and lizards being forced out of hiding and scattering in different directions. The two ran for what felt like forever, the minutes slowly rolling by and wearing them down; though fairly athletic, Fuga's lungs were beginning to burn as he panted for breath. Vale scrambled frantically beside him, his whole body beginning to ache due to his relative lack of physical fitness; and all the while, the golem's tireless stone legs carried it after them in a relentless procession, never slowing down or stopping. After what seemed like an eternity, the walls of the chamber finally came into view; and with it, another stone door.

“In there!” Fuga shouted, as if anyone really needed to be told that. As soon as he did, however, the door slowly slid open, apparently accepting their decision to enter. The golem, no longer firing lasers, outstretched its long arms and changed from a tromp to a full-blown gallop, making a thunderous thudding as it closed in on the two children as they closed the distance between them and the door. However, the golem's reach was incredibly long; it was only a few seconds away from grabbing them from behind.

Fuga glanced backwards, only to see the stone hand closing in on him. Looking to his side, he saw Vale panting heavily; he might not be able to keep up his speed much longer.

There wasn't much time to lose.

With his adrenaline pumping and a war cry of “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”, Fuga grabbed Vale by the collar, picking him up and heaving him over his shoulder as he made a running leap for the door, just barely making it through. The two painfully crashed to the ground in a heap on the stone floor of the next chamber. With the two inside, the door slammed shut on its own, sealing out any monsters who would attempt to make their way through to another chamber.

Its targets gone, the Golem abruptly stopped moving, coming from a run to a complete halt as its arms slumped loosely to the ground once more. For a few moments, it stood silently staring at the door, then slowly began tromping off in the opposite direction, looking for more monsters to exact justice upon.

“Uh, well, okay. What now?” Fuga asked Vale uncertainly. It took a few moments, but the two boys had managed to untangle themselves from the painful (and slightly homoerotic-looking) pile they had wound up in when Fuga leapt through the door. Fuga was still wincing from the painful bruises he had suffered; Vale was panting heavily, trying to remember how to breathe.

The chamber the two had found themselves in was the exact opposite of the last one; dimly lit, cramped, and full of machinery. Chains clinked and rustled overhead, pistons thrusted, pipes let out the occasional jet of steam, and massive gears in the walls spun, grinding together for some unknown purpose (but possibly just to look cool).

Vale said nothing, continuing to pant heavily. Fuga glanced around the new chamber awkwardly; normally he'd be excited, but worry had momentarily overtaken that. Regaining his composure and breathing in deeply, Vale tried to think of something to say, focusing his gaze on Fuga (but getting momentarily distracted by staring at his horns).

“....That was dumb.” Vale blurted out, leveling a flat gaze at Fuga. Fuga flinched.

“Um. I guess it was, wasn't it? Haha...” Fuga said, averting his eyes timidly. Vale's gaze softened a bit. “Well, uh, we're alive!” Fuga said, going back to beaming at Vale. “And at least we know a bit more about the golem thing!” Vale raised an eyebrow.

“....I guess.” He looked at Fuga again. “...What do we do now though? We can't fight it with our weapons....” Fuga's smile immediately inverted itself into a mopey frown and he hung his head, obviously bummed out about how his sword was useless against the golem. Useless again.

“I dunno,” Fuga said, his voice somewhat sorrowful. “I'm just messing everything up. Maybe you should go on without me.” Vale's eyes widened in panic; once again, unsure how to react.

“Uh. Um. Uh.” Vale stuttered nervously, trying to think of something reassuring to say. What do people say to reassure other people again? He wasn't entirely sure. “Don't....um...” he said, trying desperately to think of the second word that people say in situations like this.

“I just suck at this. Maybe I should just be some loser with an item store when I grow up....” Fuga moped to himself, apparently not hearing Vale.

“Th-that's not true....” Vale stuttered nervously, causing Fuga to look up at him morosely. Vale thought frantically, finally coming up with something to say. “You were really good at dodging those traps....earlier....” he said quietly, eyes darting back and forth anxiously as he fidgeted with his hands. Fuga blinked, and his expression perked up slightly. Vale stared at him nervously before continuing.

“You're not all....terrible...so....keep trying?” Vale said confusedly, regurgitating half-remembered sentence fragments he'd heard before but didn't entirely understand the meaning of. Fuga stared at him for a moment, then slowly smiled (albeit much more weakly than usual).

“Heh...thanks, Vale.” Fuga said gratefully, his voice actually at a normal volume for once.

The sound of loud hammering echoed through the halls, loud enough to make out above the clatter and grinding of machinery. The two looked up, distracted from what they were doing.

“That's suspicious.” Fuga blurted out loudly before getting up and wandering down the narrow passageway, apparently having completely forgotten about his sadness due to the distraction. Vale stared, then tentatively got up and followed.

Following the sounds of hammering, clanking, and all sorts of fiddling, the two came across a conspicuously plain door in part of the wall that wasn't covered by machinery. Straightforward as always, Fuga swung it open without even knocking.

Inside was a small room, lit warmly by the light of a lamp dangling from the ceiling. A wooden table covered by various gadgetry, bolts, and tools was placed along the right wall, while a half-open cabinet packed with food mounted was mounted on the left along with what appeared to be a miniature coolbox beneath it. Schematics, metal, and various junk littered the floor, the majority of it organized into piles on the far wall, along with a rolled-up sleeping bag.

Oh, and there was also a very startled man who had fallen out of his seat at the table upon Fuga's rude intrusion and was currently staring at him in fear. He was a tall, sallow, scrawny sort with almost no hair left on his head, a small set of rounded spectacles, and a facemask covering his mouth. Clothing-wise, he simply wore a white button-down shirt, long brown pants, and some rather nice black dress shoes.

“D-demons?! Don't hurt me! I have nothing to offer you! Please don't hurt me!” He stuttered in fright, scooting backwards. Fuga screwed up his face into a quizzical expression.

“What're you talking about? I'm just a kid!” Fuga said, chiding him in a childish 'you must be really dumb' sort of voice. The man continued quivering.

“...Your horns.” Vale muttered, staring at them silently again. Fuga blinked, feeling around on his head and remembering that his helmet had come off while attempting to deal with the golem.

“Oh. Um. Well, yeah, I have horns, but I'm not a demon, okay?” Fuga said, trying ineptly to calm the man. Somehow, this actually did reassure him, causing him to stop shaking and slowly climb to his feet; he was actually a good couple feet taller than either of the kids.

“Oh...oh, I'm terribly sorry. I'm ever so frightened of monsters, you see. What are children like you doing here anyway?” He asked, his voice frail and wavering.

“Adventuring! Duh!” Fuga said, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. Vale simply looked up towards the man, eyes narrowed slightly. “What're you doing here?” Fuga asked, failing to notice Vale.

“Oh, well, simply put I have some business to take care of here. It's quite important, actually.” the man responded timidly, eyes darting from left to right. Vale's eyes narrowed further.

“....what business?” Vale asked, clearly suspicious. The man fidgeted nervously.

“Well, it's not something kids should get involved in. It's quite dangerous, you see....” The man said, seemingly trying to avoid the subject. Fuga “hmph'd” grumpily and crossed his arms.

“....you're suspicious.” Vale eventually blurted out, causing Fuga to look at back towards him skeptically and the man's eyes to widen nervously. “If you're afraid of monsters, why are you in a dungon?” Fuga turned back to face the nervous man, a confident scowl on his face.

“Yeah! And what's this business? I bet you're a bad guy and made that golem!” Fuga accused. The man's eyes bulged very noticably in surprise. Fuga's face twisted into a triumphant grin.

“Aha! I was right! Let's get 'im!” Fuga cried, pouncing upon the man and knocking him to the ground. The man struggled to crawl free as Fuga clumsily grabbed at him and tried to put him into a headlock. “C'mon Vale! I got 'im pinned!” Fuga yelled over his shoulder as he tried to wrangle the unfortunate man into position. Vale stared at him blankly.

“Wait! I'll explain everything!” the unfortunate man sputtered, trying hard to breathe with Fuga's weight on his back. “Please let me go! I'll tell you about the golem!”

At that, Fuga stopped mid-grapple, a perplexed expression on his face. He turned to Vale, who shrugged. Slowly, he clambered off the man, who pulled himself to his feet and wiped the dust off his clothes.

“Whew. I suppose I should start from the beginning, shouldn't I?” He said, still a bit shaken by Fuga's hands-on approach. The two children nodded silently. The man righted his fallen stool, took a seat and adjusted his glasses. “My name's Dr. Emmett. I'm a bit of a freelance inventor who creates devices to help people. I heard dungeons were a terrific source of materials that you can't find anywhere else and....what can I say, my curiousity was piqued. I wanted to see what sort of new things I could make with the materials here.” He sighed heavily. “But unfortunately, I'm useless in a fight and terrified of monsters, and I don't have quite enough income to hire bodyguards. So I had the idea to create my own bodyguard, in the form of that golem. I presume you've met him.”

“Yeah! He's causing a whole bunch of trouble an' we gotta stop him!” Fuga shouted angrily. Emmett looked at him quizzically.

“Why exactly do you have to stop him?” He asked, mildly confused. Fuga puffed out his chest and grinned.

“It was a personal request from the King Jelly himself!” Fuga said proudly. Emmett looked even more perplexed.

“So....a monster asked two children to beat a golem for him?” Emmett asked, an eyebrow raised skeptically. “That's....strange, but nevermind that. It seems we have a common goal. I never intended for Victory Justice to simply rampage about trying to exterminate all monsters, but apparently there was some sort of glitch. I need to deactivate him so I can fix his programming.”

“....what kind of name is Victory Justice?” Vale asked, raising an eyebrow. The meek man's eyes lit up, as if on fire, and he clenched a fist.

“Protector of the innocent! Scourge of all evil! With his indomitable will, he will overcome all! This stone hero's name....is Victory Justice!” He cheered, his voice full of excitement. His eyes immediately dimmed, and he slumped back down into his usual manner. “Or....at least that's what I had in mind when I built and named him.” His eyes darted back and forth nervously, and he seemed highly embarrassed.

“So, uh, how're you gonna deactivate him?” Fuga asked curiously, after a far-too-long and awkward pause. Emmett's eyes brightened slightly.

“Fortunately, I think I have just the thing.” He reached onto his desk and picked up a small, lumpy metallic device with four flaps jutting out along the bottom. “I've built this device using some of the materials I've gathered from this chamber. Once it's complete, simply attaching it to Victory Justice will...” he paused, wondering how to best explain this. “Well, simply put, it'll disrupt his power flow and cause him to shut down indefinitely.”

“So it'll knock him out?” Fuga asked, only having understood about half of those words.

“Pretty much, yes. All I need to do is complete it.” Emmett said, glancing over it again, as if inspecting for any flaws.

“And how long'll that take?” Fuga asked, clearly eager to ruin that golem's day.

“Not too terribly long, hopefully. All I have to do is add a few final parts.” Emmett replied, then paused for a few seconds. “Actually getting it on him, however, that's a different matter,” he added uncomfortably. “Victory Justice won't seem to respond to my commands anymore and attacks anything he thinks hinders his 'justice'; I'm not sure if I'll have a safe opening to get close enough to plant this thing on him while he's rampaging.” He looked down at his feet, a forlorn expression on his face. Fuga scratched his chin for a moment thoughtfully, then grinned.

“Hey, that's where we'll come in!” Fuga said cheerfully, causing Emmett to perk up a bit and look at him. “We'll distract him long enough to get that thingamajig on him no problem. Right, Vale?” he asked, turning to Vale with a smile on his face. Vale blinked, then nodded quickly. Emmett's eyes brightened, and for the first time, he actually looked somewhat happy (though it was hard to tell with his facemask).

“This is perfect! I'm so grateful to all of you. I'll get to work on finishing up this device; you should start devising a plan to get it on him. I'll join you once I'm finished,” Emmett declared, taking a seat at the table and placing the device before him, grabbing a screwdriver and an indistinguishable gizmo and getting to work. Fuga tried to think for a few moments, but then looked at Vale blankly, failing to come up with any ideas more detailed than “we'll distract it”.

“Ummm. This would be easier if we had Zaabo, wouldn't it? But we left him on the first floor....” Fuga said thoughtfully, suddenly missing the snarky bat's input.

“There's a transit station down the hall and to the left; you could get back to the first floor with it.” Emmett offered, looking up briefly before returning his focus to his work. Fuga looked at him, then back to Vale with a confident smile.

“Alright! Let's make a plan!” he said, pumping a fist in the air. Vale nodded silently and turned to head down the hall, Fuga trailing after.

“Fuga, that's a terrible idea.” Zaabo said bluntly, shooting down Fuga's fifth idea that was a variation on “Zaabo will confuse the golem with his speed”. “Nobody gets confused by speed, ever. That only works in action comics.” Fuga pouted and crossed his arms, disappointed that Zaabo didn't understand his true genius.

“Well, I'm not seeing you coming up with anything better,” Fuga shot back petulantly. The three had reunited in the large chamber on the first floor where they had met King Jelly, who was currently pacing back and forth behind them silently mulling over the new information Fuga and Vale had provided.

“Good plans take time, kid. You can't just fart something out in a minute and expect it to work,” Zaabo sighed incredulously, rolling his eye in exasperation. “Though it is true that coming up with a way to get that thing to stand still won't be easy.”

“Well, maybe King Jelly could help? He's big, he could definitely slow it down at least.” Fuga suggested, causing King Jelly to jolt in surprise as everyone turned to look at him. He cleared his throat nervously.

“Well, while it is true that I wish to see this golem gone, I'm not exactly willing to put myself in such mortal danger,” he said haughtily. “I am a king and all. You understand.” he added quickly, averting his massive eyes. Everyone else glared at him, then resumed brainstorming silently (except for Fuga, who felt compelled to declare all of his ideas as loudly as possible).

After about a minute of this, the transit station at the back of the room began whirring and operating at a faster pace than usual, and a blue, sparkling portal opened before it. As everyone turned to look, Emmett emerged holding the lumpy device from before and wiping sweat off his brow. He eyeballed Zaabo and King Jelly for a few moments nervously, then cleared his throat. “Good news! I've finished the GMP device,” he declared, everyone watching with rapt attention. King Jelly glanced at him, then began to undulate closer, causing Emmett to completely freeze up with fear and stare wide-eyed as the massive blob approached. King Jelly eventually stopped about two feet from the scrawny man, his massive eyes scanning him up and down.

“Ah, so you're the inventor they were telling me about. Well met! I am sincerely grateful for your assistance in this matter. I am the great King Jelly; perhaps you have heard of me.” King Jelly greeted him, his rich voice full of generosity. Emmett stared wide-eyed, then adjusted his glasses, unsure how to react to a monster behaving so cordially towards him.

“Umm. Dr. Emmett, sir. Uh, I thought you'd be a bit angrier, since the golem was technically my fault and all....” he said meekly, averting his eyes. King Jelly laughed boistrously, causing Emmett to flinch slightly in surprise.

“No worries! Mistakes like this happen. Besides, I'm certain this tower has gone through much, much worse.” King Jelly replied casually, his voice kind and disarming. Emmett blinked a few times in surprise at the slime's demeanor, then turned to the children plus Zaabo.

“So, what have you come up with for the plan?” he inquired. Zaabo rolled his eye and Fuga lit up excitedly.

“Zaabo can-” Fuga began, but was cut off by Zaabo slapping a wing over his face.

“We've got nothing.” Zaabo said flatly. Fuga pried Zaabo's wing off his face and shot him a glare.

“I still think Zaabo should confuse him with his speed....” Fuga muttered grumpily. Emmett put a hand to his chin.

“Actually, something like that might work.” Emmett said thoughtfully. “Victory Justice may not be safe to approach while rampaging, but he won't attack me since I'm not a...um...monster. All you need to do is keep it occupied enough for me to get in close and plant this thing on him.” He turned to Zaabo. “Um, if you don't mind me asking, how agile are you?” he asked shyly, as if hoping to avoid offending Zaabo somehow. Zaabo huffed proudly in response.

“Pretty great, I'd say.” he replied confidently.

“Good at dodging attacks and moving nimbly, I would presume?” Emmett inquired, thinking carefully. Zaabo nodded again. Emmett nodded to himself silently, then asked “If you don't mind me asking, how do you feel about attacking him head on?” Emmett asked timidly. Zaabo's mouth opened wide, and he now looked less proud and more terrified.

“WHAT?” he asked, as if this was even more ludicrous than Fuga's ideas.

“It's really extremely simple. Once he focuses on you, he won't move unless he absolutely has to pursue you. If you stay relatively close at a high altitude and simply dodge his attacks, he won't move, and will be focused on you long enough to make my approach.” Emmett said, He turned to Vale and Fuga. “You two will, of course, accompany him to bail him out if things go wrong. You must stay hidden, however, since he registers Fuga as a monster.”

“....he tried to kill me too.” Vale pointed out quietly. Emmett furrowed his brow and put a hand to his chin thoughtfully.

“He must have labeled you as an enemy as well since you were with someone he labeled as a monster. Hopefully he won't do the same with me....” Emmett said nervously, deep in thought once more.

“Well, we'll figure it out when it happens.” Fuga said confidently, walking over and patting Emmett on the back before glancing over at Vale and Zaabo. “Well? Whaddya say?”

Zaabo slumped down. “Well, if that's the only way we've got....” he muttered. Once again, Vale simply nodded silently. Fuga grinned and thrust a fist into the air.

“Let's do this!”

By this point in the day the sun was finally beginning to set, the orange light dramatically illuminating the tall, swaying grasses of the prarie. The small fires caused by Victory Justice earlier had burnt out, leaving ugly charred patches across the otherwise pristine plains along with a long path of bent, crushed grasses from where the golem had chased down the two boys.

“Emmett, are you sure that big guy's gonna come back to this chamber? He doesn't seem to be here anymore.....” Fuga's hushed voice asked from the patch of grass he had hidden in. Laying low to the ground, he was more or less undetectable.

“Victory Justice can't access other chambers through the doors due to his size; he can only go up and down stairs that aren't gated. It's very unlikely he won't return soon.” Emmett's voice reassured him from another patch of grass a few feet away.

“But we've been here forever....” Fuga whined.

“It's only been twenty minutes, Fuga. Be patient.” Emmett chastised him quietly.

A few more minutes passed silently.

“I'm boooooored. I don't think he's coming,” Fuga whined again as he rolled onto his back, causing the grasses to rustle loudly. Before Emmett could object, Fuga stood up, put his hands to his face and shouted “OY, VICTORY JUSTICE! IF YOU'RE HERE, COME HERE AND FIGHT US!” His cry rang across the plains, echoing off the stone walls and causing birds to fly off in a squawking panic. Soon, it petered off into silence, and the plains were quiet again.

Before long, a heavy thudding could be heard in the distance.

“Huh, so he is here.” Fuga said, mildly surprised as Victory Justice's massive form began to come into view.

“Get down! He's going to see you!” Emmett hissed. Fuga glanced at him dumbly, then collapsed to the ground quickly as the golem drew closer. Thankfully, its scanning eyes didn't seem to notice him. Emmett peeked out quickly, then got back to the ground, a hand to his chin as he furrowed his brow in thought. “Actually, this is perfect.” Emmett mused as the Golem slowly approached their hiding spot. “Once it gets close enough, I'll give the signal so Zaabo can spring out and distract it, and I'll be in suitable range to move in and disable it.”

“Oh, joy.” Zaabo muttered from his hiding spot.

“Scared, Zaabo?” Fuga teased.

“Oh, shut up, kid. If you guys let me stupidly get killed while fighting this thing, I'll be VERY cross with all of you.” Zaabo replied, his voice irritable as usual, but higher than normal due to a tinge of fear.

The plodding grew significantly louder as the golem drew closer, and everyone quieted down. Its towering figure was becoming visible even from the grass as it approached the hidden adventurers, its head slowly swiveling from side to side scanning the area. Emmett's patch of grass rustled violently, causing Victory Justice's head to halt its lazy swivel and immediately lock onto the rustling grass and begin to analyze as it suddenly halted its tromping and came to a stop.

Before it could do anything, Zaabo shot straight up into the air from his hiding spot beside Victory Justice, the golem's head rapidly swiveling to focus on him instead. His eye was gleaming with yellow light.

Immediately, Zaabo blasted a short, thick beam of energy directly into the golem's face, the beam impacting with a loud explosion as the force knocked the golem a step back and sent its head spinning rapidly from the impact. Slowly, Emmett pulled himself up and began his approach, staying hunched and low to the ground as he crept closer.

Victory Justice's head quickly jerked to a stop and swiveled to focus its empty eyes on Zaabo, who was fluttering in place a good few feet above it. With almost no warning, a thin jet of red energy shot from them with pinpoint precision, Zaabo dropping altitude and wheeling out of the way easily. Quick, short movements to the left and right evaded three more shots before Zaabo took off, flying a wide radius around the golem's head in a teasing motion while ducking and rolling out of the way of a seemingly endless barrage of lasers.

“Good, good. Keep it up.” Emmett whispered to himself, now directly at Victory Justice's feet. Reaching up, he prepared to place the GMP device on the golem's torso.

Suddenly, the golem made a bizarre, deep noise, its head stopping mid-swivel and shaking oddly. Suddenly ignoring Zaabo, its head swung around terrifyingly fast and peered down at Emmett, who halted what he was doing in surprise.

“OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE DETECTED,” Victory Justice rumbled, its deep voice warping and skipping unnaturally as the light in its eyes pulsed violently. “ACTIVATING GRAND ARBITER.”

“Wait!” Emmett pleaded, his eyes bulging. “That's not supposed to-”

“LOOK OUT!” Fuga howled, hurtling out of nowhere and tackling Emmett out of the way as a thick red energy blast issued forth from its eyes, smashing into the ground where Emmett once was and causing a violent explosion. As the boy and scientist tumbled into the grass, Victory Justice maintained its lock on Emmett and began tromping after them. Zaabo hovered in the air blankly behind the golem as it tromped away, apparently now completely forgotten by it.

“Aw, jeez!” Zaabo moaned, his sarcastic demeanor poorly covering up his genuine worry. “Vale, let's get going! We've gotta stop that thi-” he was cut off by Vale emerging from the grass and dashing towards the golem, hands in position for spellcasting.

“That...that's not supposed to happen!” Emmett wailed, panicking as he clutched the device tight. Fuga pulled himself off the ground, glanced behind him to see Victory Justice closing in, then yanked Emmett to his feet and ran, pulling the scrawny man behind him as the golem tromped after them steadily with grim determination.

“What's going on, Emmett?!” Fuga shouted, another explosion erupting behind them. The sound of the golem's heavy footsteps behind them becoming overwhelming. “What's this 'gramp r-bitter' thing?!”

“It's supposed to be a crisis-initiated super mode for when he's in a pinch, but...but he shouldn't be able to just activate it on his own!” Emmett wailed in panic as one of the golem's stone fists separated from his arm and rocketed past them. Making a swift u-turn, it changed direction and hurtled directly at them, slamming into Fuga's stomach and sending him flying through the air back towards the pursuing golem. Wasting no time, Victory Justice swung his massive arm in a circle a few times to wind up and delivered a giant punch, his enormous reach allowing his fist to smash into Fuga mid-air and launch him in the opposite direction. Tumbling through the air, he slammed painfully into the ground and disappeared from view in the tall grass. Staring after him in horror, the ever-louder tromping caused Emmett to turn and see Victory Justice closing in, his eyes pulsing red.

Another thick yellow beam slammed into Victory Justice's head and knocked him off balance, followed by a rapidfire barrage of large, blunt ice chunks that pushed him over the edge and sent him toppling to the ground with a thunderous crash. Behind his fallen body were Zaabo and Vale.

“Get outta here! It's too dangerous!” Zaabo shouted as the golem rolled over and began trying to right itself.

“But the device-” Emmett began timidly, but was cut off by Zaabo.

“Leave it with us! We'll figure it out somehow!” Zaabo shouted, as Victory Justice was regaining its bearings and pulling itself to its feet. Finally taking Zaabo's words to heart, he fled past them towards the exit as fast as he could, tossing the GMP device at them in the process. Zaabo caught with his talons and sighed heavily. “Man, that's exactly the sort of thing that idiot kid would say.....” he remarked sadly as Victory Justice finally got back on its feet and turned to confront them.

“Don't call me an idiot!” Fuga's voice shouted from somewhere.

With that, Fuga rose from the grass angrily, heavily bruised and battered but apparently fine (relatively speaking, of course). Zaabo and Vale stared wide-eyed in surprise as he pulled himself to his feet and retrieved his sword as if he hadn't just suffered grievous bodily harm. Zaabo and Vale stared wide-eyed.

“...are you okay?” Vale asked, his quiet voice sounding simultaneously astonished and unsettled.

“No time for that!” Fuga shouted, charging towards Victory Justice as the golem wound up and threw another massive punch at Zaabo, the bat narrowly weaving out of the way and tossing the device to Vale, who caught it and began running around the golem to meet Fuga's charge in the hopes of passing it to him. Losing interest in Zaabo again instantly, its head swiveled to focus on Vale and the device he held, its eyes pulsing violently as it launched a bevvy of lasers. Vale panicked and barely managed to leap out of the way, failing to make a graceful lancing and crashing to the ground. As Vale tried to get back on his feet, he looked up to see Victory Justice looming over him, one arm reaching out towards him ominously.

However, Victory Justice stopped abruptly, as if something had caught its attention. Standing straight up with its arm mid-reach, it swiveled its head around backwards and was immediately met by Fuga's enraged face, the boy having climbed up onto the golem's rugged stone body and now clinging on with all his limbs as hard as he could; except for one arm, in which he clutched his sword.

“Eat this!” he roared, stabbing his sword into one of the golem's eyes with all the strength he could muster. The impact shattered the clear glass-like material with a resounding crash, causing Victory Justice to stagger wildly, arms flailing spastically as energy violently burst and crackled from the broken eye.

“DAMAGE DETECTED. DAMAGE DETECTED,” Victory Justice's deep voice rumbled continually as its stagger gradually slowed down and came to a stop, standing still for a few moments as if it was calming itself down. Its torso then began spinning horizontally independently to the rest of its body, slow at first, but rapidly accelerating to an incredible speed. Unable to hold on any longer, Fuga to lost his grip and was flung off into the grass yet again, tumbling awkwardly on the ground before quickly scrambling back to his feet beside the other two adventurers. Wide-eyed, the three watched as the golem began tromping towards them again, the segments of its long arms spinning wildly around it to create a sort of makeshift barrier.

“Well, now what? There's no way we can get close to put that thingamajig on him now!” Zaabo asked as the three turned tail and ran, Victory Justice leisurely tromping after them with its stone arms whirling. Its remaining eye flared up with red energy once more.

Before it could do much more, however, a massive glob of transparent slime hurtled through the air and slammed into the golem's head, adhering fast and covering its eye. The slime sizzled and seared from the heat of attempted laser-firing attempts, but held fast. Stopping the rotation of its arms, it reached up and began attempting to pull the gunk off it's face, the three slowing to a stop and watching for a moment before tracing the path from which the slime was launched. Looking over towards the entrance, they were shocked to see none other than King Jelly, surrounded by veritable horde of smaller slimes of every color. Turning to face the trio, he pulled himself up proudly.

“I say, it's a good thing I had a change of heart, isn't it?” He said pompously, sounding quite proud of himself. “You all should be quite grateful.” Giving up on the lasers, Victory Justice wound up its left arm for another punch, the trio a fair distance away but definitely within its massive reach. In response, King Jelly quickly squashed himself up vertically, his width decreasing and height increasing by several feet as he stretched upwards. Slamming himself violently back down into his normal shape, a massive, thick stream of slime roared forth from his body, slamming into the golem's side with immense force and making it start to tip over as the stream of sludge pushed against it. Its left arm was almost immediately caught up in the surge of slime, the segments getting separated and immobilized in a huge, thick wad of clear sludge. Thinking quickly, Vale rapidly chanted a much longer incantation than usual, and shot forth a thin white beam from one of his fingers into the sludge. In an instant, the slime encasing the golem's right arm froze solid, leaving it useless and replaced with an incredibly heavy chunk of ice attached to its torso. Unable to stand any more, the golem crashed heavily to the ground with an immense thud, the massive hunk of ice stuck to its side weighing it down and impairing its attempts to return to its feet. Exhausted, King Jelly slumped down noticably smaller than he was before. Vale did likewise.

“I think....that's all I've got in me right now.” King Jelly panted heavily as his slime entourage drew close to him, prepared to protect their weakened king. Vale tried to say something similar, but just gasped for breath instead, apparently having finally run completely out of juice with that last spell. Wordlessly, Vale offered up the GMP device, which Zaabo gently plucked from his hand. Zaabo and Fuga exchanged a glance, Zaabo clutching the device tightly in his talons.

“Well, looks like it's up to us to finish the job.” Zaabo said, his mouth settled into a determined expression. “If I mess this up, you'll have to take over, got it?” he asked sternly. Fuga nodded slowly, his face serious and plain. The two turned to face the heavily battered golem; with his arm frozen, one eye broken and the other half of his face covered in sizzling slime, he looked pretty thoroughly roughed up, but was still attempting to get to his feet. The two ran and flew towards him, anxious to finish this before he managed to recover.

As soon as they began their approach, Victory Justice propped himself up on its frozen lump of an arm and activated his last remaining weapon; his one functioning arm. With an ominous hum, the segments of his arm separated, spinning out of their formation into a loose, floating clump of stones. With the force of a cannon blast, one of the cylinders rocketed forward at an unbelievable speed towards Zaabo, who attempted to roll out of the way, but was just a second too slow. His eye widened in fear just a microsecond before the stone smashed into him violently, sending him spinning out of the air and knocking the device loose from his claws in the process. Without missing a beat, Fuga snatched the device out of the air and charged the golem with all the strength his tiny legs could muster, his boots pounding a rapid rhythm against the grass. Not wasting any time, Victory Justice launched another stone his way, Fuga vaulting over it as it slammed violently into the ground behind him and tossed a cloud of grass and soil into the air. One after the other, the stone cylinders hurtled towards him like missiles, each one arcing and swerving towards him at a different angle to try and catch him off-guard. His heart pounding madly and adrenaline pumping, the child leapt, swerved, sidestepped and ducked as cylinders narrowly grazed past him. As the last cylinder slammed into the ground beside him, Fuga just barely ducked his head under the golem's disembodied fist hurtling towards him, spinning rapidly as it shot past. With nothing else immediately coming at him, Fuga put all the energy he could muster into his run, heart pounding as he closed in on the immobilized golem; he was only seconds away from contact. Behind him, Victory Justice's fist swung around and rocketed towards him again at a blinding speed, the cylinders of his arm rising from their landing spots in the grass and following suit. As Fuga leapt for the golem with the device outstretched, the storm of stone hurtled in, moments away from turning all of his bones into a fine powder.

With a resounding CLICK, the GMP device attached neatly to Victory Justice's body as Fuga slammed it into his torso with all the strength he could muster.

Immediately, the stones closing in lost most of their momentum and plopped to the ground a few inches behind him. Victory Justice spasmed violently, causing Fuga to leap back, then the spasms gave way to a steady shuddering. Finally, its body simply fell apart, its head tumbling off its shoulders into the grass, its legs collapsing into pieces, and its now-limbless, round torso crashing to the ground as the magical force keeping its body parts together was extinguished. Victory Justice was deactivated; what was once a formidable foe was now nothing more than a pile of rocks.

Fuga stared blankly at the fallen golem. Turning around, he was greeted by everyone's eyes on him: King Jelly watched him with a sort of gleeful reverence along with his slime subjects, his large eyes gleaming with delight. Vale, cradling an unconscious Zaabo in his arms, gave a small smile. Emmett, who was hiding in the stairwell, peeked out timidly, his eyes wide with a mixture of awe and astonishment.

“Bra-VO!” King Jelly roared joyously, his boistrous voice echoing across the plains. “What an outstanding performance! Our kind are finally safe from this awful threat!” The smaller slimes surrounding him began to jump up and down excitedly, as if doing a dance.

“A-amazing....” Emmett said in awe, adjusting his glasses slowly.

Vale, after frantically trying to remember what people do to show their approval, flashed a shaky, uncertain thumbs-up (which he quickly retracted because it made him feel weird).

As it finally dawned on him that he was the hero, Fuga's blank face broke out into his widest, goofiest grin yet, a gleeful laugh escaping in the process. As he tried to walk towards his companions though, the adrenaline wore off and exhaustion and pain him like a sack of bricks, causing him to instantly collapse the moment he took a step. Everyone's expressions immediately inverted as they stared at the fallen child in shock.

“....I had been wondering how he didn't die after taking those punches from Victory Justice....” Emmett murmured remorsefully as he looked down sadly and pushed his glasses up. “I should have known it was too much for him to take.”

“He's not dead! Don't be such a pessimist!” King Jelly snapped at him, as one of his slimes hopped over and pressed itself against Fuga's fallen body for a few moments. It pulled itself away and hopped up and down excitedly. “See? Gerald says he's fine!” the king reassured him cheerily. He gazed upon Fuga's seemingly-lifeless body. “....we should probably get him out of here though. This isn't a fitting place for a hero to sleep at all!” He glanced over to the rest of the slimes and wobbled slightly. The slimes nodded, then crowded over to Fuga, picking him up and squashing closely together underneath him to form a solid bed of slime for him to rest on. Sliding over to the stairwell, they began their steady descent, moving slowly to prevent him from sliding off.

King Jelly watched them go, then glanced over to Vale, whose eyes were clouded with weariness and was still clutching the unconscious Zaabo. “Hmm. You probably could use a rest too.” he said thoughtfully, glancing over to the window. The sun had nearly finished setting, and the sky was rapidly growing dark. “You can rest in my private chambers, if you wish. This is quite a rare honor for a human, so you should be grateful!” King Jelly said cheerfully, puffing himself up with pride. Vale stared at him flatly, unsure how to react.

“Um...thanks.” Vale replied uncertainly before beginning to descend the staircase, King Jelly trailing behind him. Emmett continued to stand in the entrance, staring towards the fallen golem. King Jelly stopped and turned to face him.

“Come on, you can come too.” King Jelly said congenially, glancing down the staircase and back towards him. Emmett looked back at him briefly, then turned his attention back towards the remains of his creation.

“Um....what about Victory Justice? I do have to fix him up now....” Emmett said sadly, gazing remorsefully at the pile of stones.

“Eh, it should be fine if you just leave him here for now. You can get to work on him tomorrow morning,” King Jelly replied dismissively. Emmett looked back at him, brow furrowed with worry.

“But what if someone or something messes with him? Or runs off with one of his parts?” the scientist moaned, thinking of all the things that could go wrong in his absence. King Jelly rolled his eyes in response.

“And who's going to do that, the skin-wolves? I sincerely doubt any of the creatures here even have the mental capacities to think about such things,” King Jelly responded skeptically, turning to leave once more. “Come on, let's go.”

“I guess you have a point,” Emmett sighed. Stealing one final glance towards his creation, Emmett turned and began to descend the stairs behind the slime king.

A few hours later, night had fallen, and darkness covered the plains. Victory Justice's remains lay inert, a shadowy pile of parts indistinguishable from any of the other boulders in the plains. With the golem gone, the wildlife had come out of hiding, and the nightcrawlers of the plains chamber had come out. Giant pillbugs emerged from their burrows to gnaw at the roots of trees, and owls swooped about about in search of small mammals to prey on. Life had returned to normal in the chamber, and apart from the golem's remains, scorch marks, and crushed grasses, it seemed as if nothing had happened at all.

However, two shadowy figures wearing black cloaks, one slightly shorter than the other, were standing near the golem's remains. The slime covering its head had finally slid off, and the frozen goo encapsulating its left arm was thawing, causing water ooze to slide off and drip into the grass.

“Mmm. Such a shame,” one of the figures muttered, its voice masculine and coarse. The other turned to him.

“I'm still not sure why you wasted your time messing with this thing's programming.” the shorter figure said, its voice feminine, calm and smooth.

“This thing was so easily-bugged that I just couldn't help myself. Besides, wouldn't it have been convenient if it managed to kill the king of slimes for us? It would have saved us a lot of time and effort.” the taller figure replied smugly. He looked away and chuckled ominously to himself. “Besides, it was a fun diversion while it lasted.”

“We'll get to him eventually,” the shorter figure replied calmly. “For now, we have other matters to take care of.”

“Yeah, you're right,” the coarse-voiced figure replied, turning to leave. “Time to get back to business.”

The wind picked up, and the figures suddenly vanished, leaving behind nothing but a rustle of the grass.

Fuga woke up to feel the ground quivering and wobbling nauseatingly beneath him. Looking over, he realized that he was both back in the first floor chamber and was sleeping on top of a mass of slimes (who were also asleep).

“Pugh! Ew!” He wailed, flailing about violently as he pulled himself off the slime-bed....or at least tried to. His limbs and clothes were all stuck firmly to the slime's bodies, and his attempts at prying himself free simply wound up pulling the slimes about, causing them to wake up and go into a panic. All of the slimes began trying to disassemble and escape at once, which just caused them to become a thrashing, sticky mass with a wailing child stuck to it.

“SUBJECTS! CALM YOURSELVES!” a familiar boistrous voice commanded, causing all the slimes to suddenly cease their movements. King Jelly, now back to his normal size, slid into view and peered down onto Fuga's prone body. “Hello, young hero! I see you've finally awoken. I trust you slept well? My subordinates are quite soft and comfortable to rest on,” he said congenially.

“Yeah, uh, it's great.” Fuga said, sounding mildly irritated. “Um, can you help me get off of them? I'm kinda stuck.”

“Oh! But of course!” he said, as if this hadn't occurred to him. He backed up and peered at the mass of slimes, who were now still and awaiting orders. “Alright. Gerald, Angela, Reginald, Humphrey, McDonald and Gonzales? You get out first.” Six slimes making up the outer perimeter pulled themselves free and slid over to their King's side. “Alright, next.....”

About a minute of name-calling and slimes pulling themselves free later, the slime-bed had disassembled back into individual slimes, who crowded by their king's side. Fuga, now free, stood up and attempted to wipe off the slime stuck to his clothes as best he could, but was unsuccessful. “Man, mom's gonna be mad....” he pouted.

“Now's not the time to worry about that! You and your companions are heroes! And heroes deserve an appropriate reward!” King Jelly said, his voice bursting with mirth. “Of course, we should wait until your companions awaken....” he said, looking past Fuga. Turning around, Fuga saw Vale sleeping silently against the wall of the chamber with his hat pulled down over his eyes, Zaabo laying asleep in his lap. King Jelly huffed angrily. “I offered to let them sleep in my private chambers, but Vale refused! He said that he was used to sleeping in uncomfortable places. Weird kid.” Silently, Fuga walked over and jostled Vale. Murmuring incomprehensibly, he lifted his hat up and squinted up at Fuga, who smiled down at him. His eyes widened somewhat.

“...You're okay.” He said, sounding slightly surprised. Fuga grinned.

“Heck yeah I am!” he said cheerfully, flexing a bicep and grinning, before suddenly wincing as a jolt of pain shot through him. Rubbing his arm, he realized that he was aching all over his body. Unwilling to let it get the better of him, though, he forced a grin with some difficulty. “Come, get up! King Jelly's gonna give us his awesome reward!” he urged Vale enthusiastically.

“Shut uuuuuup.” Zaabo murmured grumpily, rolling over to hide his face in Vale's lap. The two looked at him; Fuga was surprised at first, then his face lit up with joy.

“You're okay!” he gasped, sounding overjoyed. Zaabo rolled over to face Fuga and opened his mouth a slit to squint at him.

“No, I'm not okay. I'm really, really not,” he groaned miserably. “Every part of my body hurts. I'm astonished I'm not dead, though right now I kind of wish I was.” Fuga rolled his eyes.

“Oh, stop being such a whiner. Come on!” Fuga said, gesturing for them to come over and starting to run back to the mammoth slime, but winced in pain once more and slowed down to a walk. Slowly, Vale picked himself up and walked over, carrying the battered Zaabo in his arms. King Jelly puffed himself up proudly once more as the smaller slimes slid into two lines on either side of him.

“Oh, great and mighty heroes. For ones so young, you have proven yourselves quite capable. For saving us, we present to you these gifts.” King Jelly began, going all-out with his regal speech pattern. Looking to his side, a slightly larger slime emerged from behind him with a smallish treasure chest partially stuck in his body. Squishing down slightly and popping back up, he tossed it out of his body and onto the ground before the heroes, the impact causing it to pop open and reveal it was jam-packed with glittering golden goins, necklaces, and gems. Fuga's face lit up with absolute glee, Vale's eyes and mouth popped open slightly in surprise, and Zaabo's squinty mouth opened up all the way. King Jelly puffed up with pride even more upon seeing their reactions. “This is all from my personal treasure horde. Quite fabulous, no? But there's more!” King Jelly proclaimed, sounding highly proud of himself.

“More?!” Fuga gasped eagerly, mouth wide in a joyful smile. King Jelly's eyes lit up with pride, then looked to either side. Two slimes from either side of him slid behind him, the wall opening up to reveal a hidden chamber chamber which they entered. Shortly afterwards, they emerged; two carrying plates with spoons, and the other two with what appeared to be massive spoons stuck in their bodies. Hunkering down, King Jelly concentrated, quivering with all his might. Soon, the faint colors on his transparent surface intensified, his body going from mostly clear to a rainbow of colors. Quickly, the two slimes jammed the spoons into him and scooped out massive, semispherical chunks of colorful jelly from his body onto the two plates. King Jelly, now with two smooth scoops taken out of his body, stopped quivering and relaxed, his body going back to its bubble-like state as the two slimes with the plates scooted over to present their plates to the two children.

“Behold, the master of sweets, the king of all desserts!” King Jelly declared proudly. “Royal jelly!”

Fuga's joyful face immediately inverted into a blank, confused stare. Vale looked at the plate offered to him with an eyebrow raised skeptically. There was a long, silent moment.

“Wait, your other reward is to let us eat part of you?” Fuga finally asked, sounding extremely perturbed. King Jelly gave him a condescending glance in response.

“I'll have you know that people pay vast amounts of money to eat my royal jelly. This is a great opportunity for commonfolk such as you,” King Jelly replied smugly. “Try it! I assure you it'll be unlike anything your tastebuds have ever experienced.”

Slowly, Vale reached down and picked up the plate. Fuga watched intently as he scooped out a small part of it and put it in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully before swallowing.

“.....It is very good.” Vale said, impressed. He quickly popped another spoonful into his mouth.

“Well, if Vale says it's good.....” he said, tentatively reaching down and picking the plate up off of the slime's head. Hesitantly, he ate a small spoonful.

A veritable eruption of smooth, sugary goodness occurred inside his mouth. It was like every single pudding, flan, fruit and ice cream in the world had mixed together, but somehow managed to avoid being completely revolting.

“OH MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING,” Fuga bellowed before chowing down on his jelly at an incredibly rapid pace, Vale watching him with a slightly unsettled expression. Zaabo looked up at him.

“Oy, Vale, you better not eat all that awesome stuff yourself if it's really that good. I could use some food right about now.” Zaabo complained. Smiling, Vale fed him a spoonful, causing him to suddenly bolt upright and spread his wings. “Man, why didn't I get a plate of my own? This stuff is awesome!” As Fuga rapidly devoured his plate and Zaabo tried to fight Vale over his, King Jelly simply laughed warmly. One of the slimes nudged him gently, causing him to look down at it.

“Ah, yes, one more thing.” King Jelly said, catching their attention as Fuga finished his plate. “I believe this is yours,” he continued, casting a gaze down towards the orange-brown slime beside him, who was wearing Fuga's horned helmet. “....Humphrey seems to like it a bit, but I'm sure we'll find him another hat. Come on, Humphrey. Give it up.” King Jelly urged him gently. Dejectedly, the orange-brown slime bounced slightly, tossing it off his head and causing it to roll and land near Fuga's feet. Grinning happily, Fuga picked it up and placed it back on his head, adjusting it to face the right way.

“So, our heroes, what are you to do now?” King Jelly asked expectantly. Everyone looked at him blankly in response.

“Uh, well....go home, I think.” Fuga laughed nervously, glancing over to Zaabo and Vale; Vale yawned slightly, and Zaabo had perched on his shoulder, more lively than before but still looking in dire need of rest. “I think we're pretty worn out.” he said, his voice wavering slightly as he rubbed his sore shoulder.

“Ahh, knowing your limits. Always wise.” King Jelly said, nodding sagely. His eyes lit up happily. “We are truly grateful for your assistance in our time of need. I know it's not much, but just remember that you'll always be welcome among us slimes on the first floor.” he said, his voice less boistrous and loud than usual; he sounded truly thankful.

“Aww, shucks.” Fuga said, feeling pretty flattered. Smiling, he walked over to collect the small but heavy treasure chest, heaving it up with both arms and wincing once again from the exertion on his sore arms. As the three turned to leave, Fuga looked over his shoulder and waved, Vale awkwardly following suit. “Thanks for everything, King!” Fuga called back to the massive slime.

“Oh no, thank you!” King Jelly replied, bowing as best as he could. Before long, the three rounded the hallway and disappeared from sight. He sighed wistfully. “Those kids are gonna go far, I can tell.” He scooted forward a bit, then turned to his subjects. “So, what do you say we have a little celebration?” he inquired, casting a gaze over the assembled slimes. The slimes all began leaping up and down rapidly in excitement.

“That's what I thought,” the king replied warmly.

“Aw man, look at all this stuff!” Fuga said, sifting through the treasures in the chest. After taking a quick drink from the healing fountain at the tower's entrance to rejuvenate a bit, the three had grabbed the mid-day carriage ride and were currently on their way back to Tartagel, the carriage car bumping and thumping slightly as it went over the unpaved soil path. The trees whizzed past the window, and dappled sunlight shone through the windows to slightly illuminate the inside of the carriage. “Think of all the things we can buy with this!” Fuga chattered eagerly, looking across the car at Vale and Zaabo, who were sitting opposite him; Vale was looking down at his feet silently, while Zaabo was intently watching him sort through the treasure.

“Hey, be careful with that!” Zaabo replied anxiously, hopping over to the seat beside Fuga. “What if we go over a bump and it accidentally knocks some treasure out the window because you didn't have it secured?” he continued as he joined Fuga in peering into the chest. “Dang, is that a crawbuncle tiara? That'll fetch 100 gold, easily. We're splitting this three ways, right?” the orbat asked expectantly as he glanced back up at Fuga.

“What's an orbat gonna do with 100 gold?” Fuga asked in return, an eyebrow raised skeptically.

“Hey, I have needs too!” Zaabo spat angrily. Vale chuckled slightly, catching their attention and making him freeze up nervously when they looked at him. He quickly turned his attention to the window. A long pause ensued.

“So Vale, what'd you think of our adventure?” Fuga asked, attempting to break the silence.

“It was...ummm....” Vale said, eyes darting from side to side as he fidgeted nervously.

“You didn't like it?” Fuga said with a frown, sounding somewhat heartbroken. Vale's eyes widened, and he began to gesture frantically with his hands.

“N-no, that's not.....I liked...um...well.....your....” he stuttered madly, unsure what to say. Zaabo sighed and rolled his eye incredulously.

“What am I gonna do with you, kid?” he muttered, then looked at Fuga. “What he's trying to say is that it was pretty exciting and he liked doing it with you. He was also kind of impressed by how well you handled yourself....at least, I think that's what he's trying to say.” Zaabo explained, then screwed his mouth up oddly. “Or it could be something totally different. I mean, he almost never says that sorta thing.” Zaabo added skeptically, then shrugged with his wings. Fuga's face lit up with joy, and Vale looked away timidly.

“Is that really what you think?” Fuga asked eagerly. Vale nodded slowly, still looking away. Fuga grinned and laughed. “Hey, it was great adventuring with you too! I didn't know you could do spells like that freezing thing, you've gotta show me everything else you can do!” he rambled excitedly, causing Vale to look at him and make an attempt at a smile. Fuga then looked at Zaabo, eyes wide with excitement. “Oh, and you're cool too! It was so awesome the way you dodged all that golem's attacks like it was nothing!” he prattled, getting fired up again just from recalling the battle. Zaabo's eye widened in surprise, and he coughed and cleared his throat.

“Uh, thanks. You're not too bad either, I guess.” Zaabo remarked while looking away, his voice gentler than usual due to him being somewhat caught off-guard. “You didn't get Vale killed by that golem and I hear you were the one to deactivate him when I got knocked senseless, so overall I'd say you did pretty impressively. For a greenhorn.”

“Yeah, that was pretty cool, right?” Fuga said proudly as he grinned and put his arms behind his head, glancing between his two party members for approval. Vale nodded silently in agreement, but Zaabo's mouth quickly furrowed into a frown.

“You're still an idiot, though.” Zaabo added irritably. “Don't get so precocious just because you didn't completely screw everything up.”

“Hey!” Fuga shouted, his expression souring into a pouty frown.

“....shut up, Zaabo.” Vale sighed, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

“Yeah, shut up Zaabo!” Fuga echoed, a smug grin spreading across his face (which only irritated Zaabo further.)

“Oy, Vale, what're you doing siding with this moron?!” Zaabo ranted as he turned to Vale, sounding extremely peeved.

Finally starting to feel some slight modicum of comfort expressing himself, Vale shrugged casually. “...he's not that dumb.” he said casually, a slight grin forming on his face.

“I'm not any kind of dumb!” Fuga insisted angrily.

As their conversation finally broke into full swing, the carriage continued to tirelessly ride on through the forest, its passengers carrying on in their banter without a care in the world.