The Big Blue Slime [1]

'Welcome. Please come in.' Said a mysterious voice in Nemu's mind.

Nemu was not surprised. He had already expected that whatever was there in the cave would speak to him. What he did not expect was a polite invitation. However, he also knew that it could be just an act to make Nemu feel safe and enter the cave. Actually, it was likely.

"It's a trap, isn't it?" Trewy asked while looking at Nemu. She had the same thought. Nemu seemed nervous to her, not afraid but tense.

"Yes. Although I don't think it will attack us directly. It just told me to come in." Confirmed Nemu. Obviously, she couldn't hear the voice. She had not yet learned telepathy. She had made up her mind to learn telepathy so that she could talk to Nemu, even though she didn't know how to do it. She already had a plan to ask one of her sisters when she started training with them. Dryads had contact with red slimes before. And that required telepathy. So it must be possible for her to learn it too. Even if she hoped it wasn't one of the abilities she'd only get at a certain age.

"Do you want to go on?" Trewy asked. They would definitely go on, but so far they had not entered the slime cave. Maybe there was a reason for that. They were still looking into the dark entrance. The slimes around them didn't move again either and were still staring at them. Whatever Nemu was doing was only in his mind.

"Yes." Nemu simply said and jumped forward. "But be careful, there might be traps." The chances of that were very slim, but not impossible. And being careful never hurts anyone. That was, besides the people who set up traps, of course.

When they entered the cave, they saw.... nothing. It was just a boring cave. With everything that was so unusual outside, they had expected anything. Actually, it was more surprising for them that nothing in the cave surprised them. However, they could not see the end. Like a snake, the cave moved in a curved line through the ground. They quickly saw the reason for the light. There were magic crystals on the walls. This often happened in caves, when the mana density was high enough, faintly glowing crystals appeared on the floor and walls. And here, in the cave, the mana density was high. Was this what attracted the slimes, Trewy wondered. It certainly wouldn't explain everything, but slimes lived on magicules, so they could be attracted to them.

They kept moving until... There were slimes. They crossed a lot of blue slimes on their way. And all of them stared at them mindlessly. The further they went into the cave, the higher the mana density became. Meanwhile, Nemu could feel something else. It felt like there was suppressed consciousness. And he knew immediately what it was. Red slimes. Without question there were red slimes down here, but it still felt strange.

Wordlessly, they continued walking. They had to walk for 5 minutes by now. And the cave changed. What had been a natural cave in the beginning was not anymore. The walls were too smooth. As if someone had dug through the cave. But not with tools. Parts of the cave had been cut away. Nemu was confused. He had heard of giant sandworms that resided in the Barren Lands, far to the east of the planet. It was the only desert on the planet. However, sandstorms and extreme weather conditions made the land uninhabitable. And except for the giant worms that made it virtually impossible for most beings to cross the desert, there wasn't much to know. Only that there was a city of giants in the far east. And the leader was a demon lord who had controlled this land for many centuries. A place Nemu will definitely visit.

"Have you ever seen anything like this?" Nemu asked. Trewy was a dryad and she should have knowledge that was not in any books. She had already told him about some creatures in the forest that no one else knew about. Obviously, she had never seen the creatures, but her sisters had told her about them.

"No." Trewy shook her head. She didn't know what more to say about it. This place, was inexplicable to her too. And not just the cave, by now they had passed another 50 slimes. With the slimes outside, there were at least 100 slimes here, an accumulation that hadn't been there before. And they knew that there would be even more.

Nemu felt it more and more. There were hundreds of slimes down there. But they weren't simple slimes. It felt like the slimes were forming a mass. A collection of hundreds of slimes, grown together into a single individual. Nemu had never heard of such a thing before. And he also knew there was more behind it. The situation was more complicated. The voice in his head, the suppressed consciousnesses of the red slimes, he was already expecting something, but he always knew that there were still missing pieces.

Finally, they reached the end of the cave. And entered a large room. The room was built like the cave as it had smooth walls on all sides. The large room was definitely created, even though Nemu and Trewy still didn't know how such a thing was possible.

But that was not the most surprising thing in the cave, not even the 100 blue slimes that gathered here, not even the 5 red slimes that Nemu had been looking for.

In the middle of the room was a slime. A blue slime. And it was huge. Easily as tall as a full grown man and even wider. And it had a face, well, not really a face, but in its blue body something formed that was very close to a face. Two eyes and a mouth. That was on the body of the slime and it was reminiscent of a face. They got their confirmation that they weren't just imagining it when the mouth moved while a tune sounded.

"Welcome, little red slime." He said while looking at Nemu but turned his gaze to Trewy immediately. "And who you might be?"

Trewy wasn't quite sure how to react. She really didn't like not having telepathy, in situations like this it would have been very helpful. But an introduction couldn't be wrong, could it?

"I'm Trewy, and I'm a dryad." She said simply, waiting to see what would happen now.

"A dryad?" The big slime raised his eyebrows. Literally. Two lines formed in his slime body above his eyes that looked like eyebrows. By now Trewy could make out Nemu's facial expressions. But with this slime, even someone who hadn't spent time with slimes before could recognize it. Even Nemu was surprised. When monsters get stronger, they took on a humanoid form. And this slime had something like a humanoid face. And it was definitely stronger than normal slimes. Is there a connection?

But the big blue slime looked like it was thinking, no, rather searching in its memories for something until....

"Oh, a dryad! The protector of the forest and savior of the red slimes. Welcome to my cave!" He said politely. However, he needed to work on his poker face, because while he spoke politely, he looked slightly worried. "What brings you to my humble home?"

"We come from the rabbit tribe. They told us that there is a slime cave here, and since we are adventurers, we decided to visit this place." Nemu spoke for the first time since they had entered the cave. Only now did he realize that there were also red slimes. He tried to speak to them too, but.... They just stared at him. Like all the blue slimes they had seen since they had entered the clearing.

"The rabbit tribe?" The big blue slime looked at him curiously. "Oh, the ones with the long ears?"

"Yes." Nemu confirmed but that was not what he wanted to talk about. "Why... did you attack me?"

"Why would you think that I attacked you?" The big blue slime asked, but he didn't look like he didn't understand the question.

Nemu sighed. Trewy looked at the situation. She still didn't know what exactly happened between them and Nemu hadn't called it an attack before. By now, she doubted it would end well.

"You tried to invade my consciousness. And it looks like I'm not the only one." Nemu pointed around the room. All the slimes here, the unnatural behavior, even from the red slimes, Nemu was sure now. They were being controlled. By the slime in front of them.

"Oh, no." Contrary to their expectations the big slime giggled. "I simply tried to find out who you are. But it seems like you are... special. Even for a red slime."

He tried to find out who Nemu is. Well, maybe that wasn't even a lie, however, if Nemu wouldn't have been able to block the big blue slime's influence, he was sure that he would have attacked him further. Nemu didn't like what was going on here. And he was still clueless. There were so many things here that didn't make any sense. How is it possible that a big blue slime can even exist? Are there more of them? He could not rule it out. There was little that was known about slimes, and this slime was deep in the forest. Even the rabbit people didn't care about the cave after they saw that there were slimes everywhere.

"What... is this place?" Nemu asked, he still had many questions.

"Its my cave." The big blue slime said and looked at him like he didn't understand the question.

"That's... not what I meant. Why are there so many slimes here? I dont think there are any more places like this." Said Nemu. It looked like the big blue slime in front of him doesn't often have conversations.

"Oh, hmm..." The big blue slime thought about how to phrase it. "You could say it's a sanctuary, I protect the slimes so they don't have to live in the dangerous forest."

Nemu looked around again. All the slimes, they were controlled, no, suppressed by him. He thought back to what he had heard first. 'Run'. Whatever the big blue slime had done. He didn't do it to protect the slimes. They were his... Prisoners.

"This looks more like a prison than a sanctuary." Said Nemu, now serious. "Or can the slimes leave this place?"

"Not without my permission, but it's for their best." Replied the slime. He said he protected the slimes here, and in his perspective, he probably did it. However, a savior did not lock anyone up to protect them.

Trewy was still watching. She felt like she should stay out of it. What was happening here... It was Nemu's task to solve it. And it was his decision how he would solve it. Obviously, she would support him. So she was tense. She was aware that this might end up in a battle.

"So the slimes are your prisoners?" Nemu stated.

"Well, call it what you will. But for their protection, of course, they have to pay something back." The big blue slime started to get angry after his authority was questioned. Something he was obviously not used to.

"And... how do they pay you back?" Nemu already suspected that he would not like the answer.