There were many things Ren Vireo expected to find in a crumbling ruin.
Ancient relics? Sure. Whispering mana echoes? Of course. A sense of foreboding dread? Practically mandatory.
What he didn't expect was a wet splorp sound followed by a cold, slimy weight landing on the back of his neck.
"—WHAT IS THAT?!"
Ren flailed like a man possessed, spinning and smacking at his own shoulders in a graceless panic. Something soft and jellylike clung stubbornly to his collar, squelching happily every time he tried to shake it off.
He caught his reflection in a cracked mirror embedded in the ruin's wall.
It looked like he was wearing a glittery blue shoulder pad made of… sentient gelatin?
The blob wobbled in place, shimmered in the dim light, and blinked. Blink-blink.
It had eyes now. Wide, innocent, impossibly expressive eyes.
"Oh no," Ren groaned. "You're cute. That's so much worse."
The blob gave an enthusiastic bloop, detached itself with a bounce, and splatted onto the ground. It quivered slightly, then reshaped into… a tiny shovel.
Ren stared.
"Did you just try to help?"
The blob turned back into its regular form, spun like a coin, and wobbled proudly. A little antenna-like blob grew from its head and pointed toward a collapsed tunnel in the back.
"Oh no," Ren muttered. "You're intelligent. That's way worse."
He crept closer to the ruined tunnel. It was full of shattered glass canisters, broken runes, and mana scars seared into the walls. Some kind of ancient laboratory, maybe? A failed experiment chamber?
The air felt… wrong. Thin and thick at the same time.
In the middle of the rubble sat a metal tag, half-melted but still legible.
"Project GL-P. Hazard Class: Volatile."
He looked at the blob.
It blinked up at him. Blink-blink. Then it made a squiggly heart with its body.
"…Nope. Not adopting you."
The blob bounced onto his boot.
"I said no."
It climbed up his leg.
"I'm not ready to be a slime dad!"
It leapt into his satchel and curled up in a spare sock like it owned the place.
Ren sighed and stared at the ceiling.
"This is how it starts, huh?"
The ceiling dripped.
A small tremor rattled the ruins.
Mana flared somewhere in the deep—something dangerous was stirring.
The blob's body rippled as it sensed the mana ahead. A protective shell of hardened gel formed over its soft core. Without hesitation, it launched itself in front of Ren.
"Wait, what are you—"
A burst of corrupted mana surged toward them from the corridor.
The blob swelled, absorbed it like a sponge, and fizzled with a high-pitched burble. Then, with a twitch, it spit the mana back out as a harmless mist.
Ren blinked.
"Okay. Fine. You can stay."
The blob spun joyfully and formed a little crown on its head.
"But if you ever turn into a giant rage monster or lay eggs in my socks, I will regret this."
The blob gave a hopeful bloop, then turned into a spoon again.
Ren sighed and tucked the little creature into his satchel.
"Alright, Gloop," he said, naming it on instinct. "Let's get out of this ruin before something tries to eat both of us."
Behind them, the ruin gave a final groan.
And somewhere deeper in the dark, something else noticed the mana disturbance—and the strange Traveler walking beside a newly awakened anomaly.