Sunlight cut through the dusty tavern air. The beams of light tickled Whis's face and stirred him from his sleep. Whis purred and stretched his whole body out, spreading his fingers and toes as he flexed every muscle in his body. He went limp, smacked his lips, and then swung his feet over the edge of the bed to stand up.
Whis trudged downstairs, arms hanging limp and eyes closed as he just felt his way along.
"Good morning, Whis!" called Helene, who waved his way. Edoix and Gymgrei also waved, smiling warmly.
"Ye ready for the day, lad?" asked Gymgrei, who was cleaning off a plate of pastries.
Whis nodded and gave his party a short wave back. "Yeah, when do we leave?"
"We're waitin' on you, lad," said Gymgrei. "Hurry up and get some breakfast."
Whis ordered a simple breakfast from the tavern: a few eggs, some thick pieces of fried pork belly, and a bowl of oats and butter. It was quick eating.
With breakfast out of the way, the party left the Gryphon's Claw. Edoix had paid for a cart ride to the outpost detailed in the quest notice. It would drastically cut their travel time.
The cart they paid for had a big white canopy stretched over the frame to shelter the contents from the sun and prying eyes.
They climbed into the cart, though Gymgrei needed a box due to his height, and sat down. They would be on the road for the next three hours.
"So what even are slimes?" asked Whis, arms hanging between his legs.
The party gave Whis a strange look. Slimes were common enough monsters that anyone would know what they are.
"Slimes are condensed living mana," started Edoix. "After the sundering, pools of mana occasionally bubbled up from the planet's core. The pools of wild, living mana would condense in the cold air of the surface. Depending on where they are, the slimes could mutate into many different variations; most commonly, we saw the slimes adopting elemental affinities."
The explanation came like listening to a textbook, which was par for the course when talking with Edoix.
Whis nodded along, staring slackjawed at Edoix as he managed to focus. "Okay, so they're this mana stuff. What's mana?"
This is a more common inquiry, and Edoix was all the more prepared for it, a self-confident smile on his face.
"Simply put, Whis, mana is everything. It's the raw energy that composes all things living or dead," said Edoix, gesturing to everything with open palms. "With enough energy—and control over said energy—you can make anything. Typically it is used for the casting of spells, such as Helene's pyromancy and my healing arts."
Edoix leaned in close. "There exists stories, though, of a people so attuned with the flow and formation of mana that they could create new lifeforms and objects at will. Not fading illusions or tricks either, but actual creations that persist!"
Whis leaned back, sitting limply in the cart bench as the two horses in front pulled it down the bumpy cobblestone road.
"So if the slimes are just raw mana, why do they eat?" asked Whis. "Does magic get hungry?"
The party snickered, save for Edoix. "Actually, Whis, you're not far off," said the elf.
Helene and Gymgrei sat up straight. "What?" gasped Helene. "Spells don't get hungry, Edoix."
Edoix flinched and waved her down. "They actually do, Helene. Mana dissipates over time and dissipates faster if it is being actively used. Ancient pre-college spells often had sacrifices as triggers because there needed to be an initial release of energy to trigger the spell. Modern magic doesn't need this, but the more intense the effect, the higher the cost and sooner it's over. Likewise, if you are out of mana and try forcing a spell, you'll find your life shortened drastically to make up for the lack of power." Edoix returned his gaze to Whis and continued. "Imagine, if you will, what that property of mana looks like when the mana itself becomes living. The mana gets hungry!"
Edoix continued his lecture into mana dissipation as Whis mentally tuned him out. He had just made the road trip even longer for everyone, who now had to listen to the elf wax poetic about sticky goo creatures and their dietary habits.
Three hours later, the cart pulled into the outpost and the party climbed out. Gymgrei and Helene were visibly frazzled and tired, shooting daggers in Whis's direction. Edoix tugged his lapel into place and took a deep breath.
"Excellent, we made it without incident. I certainly feel ready to go. How about you?" asked Edoix, turning around to see Whis spacing off.
Helene's glare panned to Edoix, her energy sapped from listening to the elf talk for three hours.
Gymgrei looked a sight as well, beard a mess, before he bounced once on his heels and grumbled, "I need a drink."
"There'll be time for that later, I'm afraid," said a guard who approached the party wearing chainmail and a cloth tabard. "The captain wants this matter taken care of immediately. We received notice you'd be arriving by cart, and I've been waiting here to greet you."
The guard brought his fist to his chest. "I am Lieutenant Thomas Cal of the Alexandrian guard corps. Please follow me to the storehouses." Just as quickly as the guard arrived, he turned heel and marched off, expecting no argument.
The party followed, though Helene quietly fixed her hair and sighed while Gymgrei grumbled at being denied a drink.
The storehouses were on the opposite side of the outpost: a series of lifted buildings on stilts that sat in a perfect line next to a large wooden water tank.
"The first two buildings are granaries; grains make up a bulk of our food supply at the outpost. The third building is a freezer, and it stores fish, meat, and wild game," listed the lieutenant.
"Our critical concern is the water tower. If the slimes get into our water supply, they can cause serious damage, with the risk of parasitizing everyone stationed here." The lieutenant turned to face the party. "We're too busy to post a watch dedicated entirely to the slimes. We're hoping that you Wanderers can do the part and find their culture. If the culture's exterminated, then the loose slimes will die off."
Helene nodded and pulled her weapon from the loop on her backpack, a long wooden staff with a gem set in the head. "We'll do our best, sir. Leave it to us."
The guard nodded and gave the party another salute. "I'll be off. If you need anything to help you, do not hesitate to ask. We can't do much, but we will do what we can." The lieutenant turned around and marched off to see to his other duties.
The party wasted no time and got their weapons out and ready to go. Gymgrei drew his pistols and positioned himself to oversee all four structures and the forest behind them.
Helene, with her staff, took the inner corner, viewing the open areas in front of and behind the buildings.
Edoix roamed between the buildings, staying within close distance to the rest of his party so he could provide support.
"Whis, take position near the forest edge. If you see anything, call it out before you attack it," ordered Helene.
Whis complied, running out to the edge of the forest with his sword drawn.
Whis and his party stayed in this position until the sun crested the treetops. The air filled with the warm twilit glow of the setting sun cutting through the trees ahead of them.
With everyone else focused on the job—and absolutely nothing happening—Whis had gotten bored. To pass the time and shed his boredom, Whis had taken it upon himself to defend the outpost from a new scourge—pine trees.
With swishes, thwacks, and thunks filling the air, everyone else's patience was starting to wear thin.
Gymgrei sighed and put his guns away, walking over to Whis. "Lad, you're going to chip your blade doing that. Give it a rest."
Whis huffed and dropped his shoulders, head rolled back. "We've been here for hours! I thought this was supposed to be an infestation," he whined.
The dwarf folded his arms and nodded. "Aye, it's strange, I'll admit. But Hel's bells, lad, you're gonna drive everyone nuts smacking your sword about like a child."
Whis's ears fell and he put his weapon away. "Where are these slimes? I feel like we should have at least seen one by now—"
And then one appeared. It had flung itself from a nearby bush and onto Whis's head.
Whis panicked and clawed at the gelatinous blue body of the amorphous organism clinging to his head. He couldn't breathe, the pale face of death creeping closer and closer as he tried ever harder to get the monster off his head.
Finally, he broke free, buying his mouth a moment of freedom. Whis gulped the air greedily before his mouth was covered again.
A terrible gale whipped up, nearly lifting Whis off the ground. While his clothes fluttered in the torrential winds, however, he felt the slime being lifted away.
As fast as the attack started, it was over. Bits of blue slime were blown across the grass, and now Whis could see by whom.
Helene stood there, hand outstretched, with a glowing white magic circle shining from her palm.
There wasn't a moment to thank her, as the forest came to life, slimes spilling out of the undergrowth.
"Here they come!" roared Gymgrei, who drew his pistols and began to fire rapidly into the crowd.
Whis redrew his sword and stood firm, moving up to stand by Gymgrei. A slime attacked from the left, and Whis swung at it, knocking it out and into Gymgrei's killzone.
The dwarf capitalized, spinning and letting a round rip through the air. It was a direct hit, turning the airborne slime into a fine blue mist.
More and more, the surge of slimes came bounding in. It was clear now why this infestation had the guards posting a quest for aid. The swarm was massive.
The flood of mana-rich slime globs came pouring in, leaping for a head whenever the opportunity presented itself. The slimes that dashed for Helene were atomized in bursts of pyromantic heat, evaporating in a wave of rippling air as the Black Mage bent reality to her design.
"Helene! They're makin' a break for the water tower!" cried Gymgrei, who was kneeling behind Whis to reload his guns.
Whis, tired and panting, swung wildly at attacking slimes. His angles were off, making slashes dull; his swings were wide and lacked follow-through on impacts; and he was using a lot of energy just moving the length of steel around.
A group of slimes that had split from the main group began to rush the tall, stilted drum of potable water, eager to dive in and proliferate. Foot by foot, the cute-faced organisms got closer and closer.
They got too close. Helene let off a wall of heat, the shape clearly outlined as the air rippled with its intensity. The slimes ran right into it, evaporating on contact.
Gymgrei returned to the front and worked on taking more accurate shots on the slimes, going for penetrating kills that would take out enemies in the back row as well as the front row.
Edoix was not absent during the fight. He moved, sending out darts of light that pierced slimes, leaving them dead but unbroken. His casting rate wasn't impressive, but the fidelity and damage of his arcane bolts were.
As Whis's failed swordstrikes climbed, so did his frustration. This sword was too hard to use. Even at three pounds, it was a heavy thing to swing about, and the fact that his angle of attack needed to be just right to get a proper kill was infuriating. He growled and knocked another slime aside with the flat of his weapon by mistake. Whis hissed as a slime attached to his arm and had to be blown off by Edoix. And when the third offender made a dash straight for his head again, Whis snapped.
He wound back and chucked the sword at the leaping slime, the blade knocking it down before going high and slamming into a tree behind the slimes.
All eyes snapped to Whis as he dropped down low and curled his fingers in. He didn't survive the streets of New York by swinging a metal stick around.
He dashed forward, howling out as he swept one hand across a slime, digging his sharp nails into its cool, wet membrane. He followed through, ripping four nasty tears in its body that spilled forth blue goo.
From slime to slime, Whis did his job, goring and rending the creatures under his claws, biting and ripping them open with his fangs, and moving constantly to always have a target under attack.
The surviving slimes jiggled in place before simultaneously turning tail and fleeing the crazed cat that was laying waste to them at speed. The display of feral violence had Whis's own comrades stunned. It was well known that Sealgari had claws, but they were almost never actually used in combat.
Whis stood up, panting heavily as he watched the slimes flee. He wanted to chase them, to hunt them down and find their nest—their culture. A hand stopped him. Gymgrei's hand squeezed his arm, and Whis turned to see the smiling Gunslinger, eyes twinkling with pride.
"That was definitely somethin' to behold, lad," sniffed Gymgrei. The dwarf stepped forward, stomping through a bush to retrieve the sword Whis threw. "We'll need to be doin' something with this now that we know how you truly fight."
Whis looked at the steel and then looked at his blue-stained hands, nails sharp and pointed. "I think I know exactly what to do with it."