The Citadel of Unwritten Tales was no longer a static fortress. With the infusion of the 'Sanctuary's Heart,' it had become a living, breathing narrative engine. The proof of this came a few days after their return from the city of amnesiacs.
As Jin-woo and Cid stood in the Chamber of the Unwritten Page, contemplating which of the three new tales to choose, a soft, melodic chime echoed through the room. It was not a warning or an alarm. It felt... like a notification.
A new, smaller rune, glowing with a gentle green light, appeared on the floor at their feet.
[Side Quest Generated: 'An Overabundance of Cliché']
[Location: The Library of Echoes (New Wing)]
[Objective: A 'Narrative Slime' infestation has been detected. These low-level conceptual entities are feeding on the memories of your past adventures, corrupting them into generic tropes. Cleanse the corruption before your own history becomes boring.]
[Reward: Minor Citadel Enhancement.]
They followed a trail of newly materialized glowing arrows, a helpful bit of Citadel UI, to a wing that hadn't existed before. A massive, ornate door now stood where a blank wall had once been. The sign above it read: "The Library of Echoes."
They pushed the doors open. The library was a vast, sprawling space, but instead of books, it held artifacts and dioramas from the worlds they had visited. It was a museum of their own adventures.
There was a perfect, miniature replica of the Kensei-den arena, with tiny figures re-enacting the final "I Am Atomic." There was a perpetually blooming Sunpetal from Aethelburg, growing under a miniature clock tower. There was even a looping hologram of Captain Jax's Stardust Drifter doing a triumphant barrel roll.
It was a beautiful, nostalgic space. But it was being corrupted.
Patches of a dull, grey, translucent slime were sliming over the exhibits. And wherever the slime touched, the narrative magic of the object would warp and simplify.
Cid walked over to an echo of the solar cutlass that had belonged to Captain Jax. A description plate below it should have read: 'The Solar Cutlass, a blade forged from a sun-fragment, wielded by the noble pirate Captain Jax Valor in his fight against the Void Syndicate.'
But a Narrative Slime was oozing over the plaque. The text now read: 'Magic Sword. Does +10 Damage to Bad Guys.'
"The horror!" Cid gasped, clutching his chest. "It's reducing complex, nuanced storytelling to generic RPG stats! This is a crime against literature!"
Jin-woo, meanwhile, was examining the replica of the Kensei-den. A slime was clinging to the side, and the memory-figures within were no longer performing their epic duel. They were now just statically T-posing, their animations broken. The rich story of the tournament had been corrupted into a 'glitched asset.'
"They're not just simplifying," Jin-woo observed. "They're making things lazy. They are the physical embodiment of bad, uninspired writing."
This was not a job for raw power. This was a pest control problem on a conceptual level.
A small slime detached itself from an exhibit and oozed towards them. Jin-woo prepared to blast it with a wave of shadow energy.
"Wait!" Cid commanded. "You can't kill a bad idea with force. You'll just make a mess. You must counter it with a better idea!"
He held up his spectral Author's Pen, a look of determined artistry on his face. He pointed the Pen at the approaching slime. He didn't write an attack. He wrote... an 'edit' of the creature's very being.
[Creature: Narrative Slime. Motivation: To simplify and corrupt stories.]
[EDIT: Motivation is now 'To seek out and 'enhance' stories with dramatic, if often unnecessary, flourishes.'
The dull, grey slime shimmered. It suddenly turned a vibrant, theatrical purple. It paused, then turned to a nearby exhibit—a simple, elegant vase from the Realm of a Thousand Blades. It then oozed onto the vase's description plaque.
The text, which read 'An example of late-dynasty pottery', was instantly changed. It now read: 'The Cursed Vase of the Weeping Empress, said to contain the soul of her betrayed lover! It is prophesied that one day, a hero will shatter it to release his spirit!'
The slime had not corrupted the story. It had turned a boring piece of background scenery into a dramatic, lore-rich plot hook.
They proceeded through the library. Jin-woo's role was to use his 'Shadows of Silence' and raw presence to herd the grey slimes, preventing them from spreading further. Cid's role was that of the 'purifier,' using his Author's Pen to rewrite the core directive of every slime he encountered, turning them from agents of cliché into agents of over-the-top drama.
Soon, the Library of Echoes was no longer being corrupted. It was being "enhanced." The Stardust Drifter's hologram was now engaged in a dramatic, never-ending space battle with a fleet of phantom krakens. The Kensei-den replica now had dramatic weather effects and a cheering crowd that would occasionally throw roses.
They reached the heart of the library, a grand rotunda. And in the center, on a pedestal, was the source of the infestation. A massive, quivering, grey blob, the "Mother Slime." And it was sitting on the most dangerous possible object: a blank, waiting replica of the Unwritten Page. It was threatening to corrupt their future stories before they were even written.
"This one is different," Jin-woo noted. "It's not just a blank slate. It's a generator. It's the source of the boring ideas."
"The ultimate lazy writer," Cid said with disdain. "It must be taught a proper lesson in narrative structure."
This one was too big to simply rewrite. They had to defeat it. But how do you defeat the concept of "boring"?
Cid looked at the Unwritten Tome, which was resting on a stand nearby. He had an idea. He opened the book to its first blank page. He focused. He was going to 'record' a concept. But not a grand, cosmic one. A very specific, very simple one. He reached into his own memories, into his own essence, and recorded the core of his 'Eminence in Shadow' fighting style.
[Concept Recorded: 'Stylish, Over-the-Top Misdirection'. One Page Used.]
He then looked at the Mother Slime. "You wish to write a story? Then let us co-author a short one."
He "released" the concept from the Tome.
The Mother Slime, a being of pure, lazy simplicity, was suddenly struck by an overwhelming, irresistible urge to be cool. To be dramatic. To add flair.
Its simple, blob-like form began to shift. It tried to form itself into a cool, edgy dragon, but then it got a better idea and tried to form itself into a mysterious, cloaked swordsman. It then tried to do both at once.
The slime was now locked in a battle with itself, its core desire for simplicity fighting a war against an injected, overwhelming desire for style. It vibrated, it shimmered, it cycled through a dozen different, half-formed "cool" shapes a second, utterly paralyzed by its own, sudden, creative ambition.
While the slime was having its artistic meltdown, Cid walked up to it with his Author's Pen. "Now then. You have passion, but no direction. You need... an editor."
He placed the tip of his Pen on the quivering Mother Slime and gave it a final, definitive rewrite.
He didn't destroy it. He gave it a new, permanent purpose.
The giant, grey slime stopped quivering. It settled, shrinking down into a small, helpful, purple blob with a single, inquisitive eye.
[Side Quest Complete!] the green rune glowed on the floor.
[Reward: The Library of Echoes has gained a new caretaker: 'Plotz,' the Narrative Slime. Plotz will now manage the library and can be consulted to 'stress-test' new narrative ideas by showing you their most cliché potential outcomes, helping you to avoid bad writing.]
The former boss of their side quest had just become a new feature of their base.
As they turned to leave, Plotz quivered. Its single eye projected a hazy, indistinct image into the air. It was a dark, starry void, and in the center, a single, weeping, crystalline star.
It then projected another image: a fragment. A piece of a ship's manifest from the Void Syndicate, listing "Crystalline Cargo" as a priority asset.
The slime had not just been a random pest. It had been a tutorial. A way for the Citadel to teach them how to better connect the dots of their own, expanding legend. And it had just given them their next major lead in a story they thought was already over.