Lost in thought as he was, Jacob at first did not notice the Slime slowly seeping into his crevice through the cracks in the rock above him. The Slime burbled out to almost fill the crevice and still he did not notice anything until he heard someone call out to him from very close by; jumping in surprise and alarm he finally looked up and saw the mass of purple slime descending towards him, reaching out one slimy pseudopod to grab him.

Reacting quickly Jacob threw himself towards the opening of the crevice, tumbling out and into open air where he caught himself using his wings to stop a potentially fatal descent. Hovering just outside the mouth of the crevice he saw the Slime still reaching blindly for the spot he had just occupied a moment ago. He also saw a Goblin, presumably his saviour, half sticking out of a hole in the wall fling a rock at the Slime.

Jacob wasn’t sure what was going on, or where either of these creatures came from, other than the fact that the Goblin had probably just saved him life. He also didn’t know what to do as he was very much ill-equipped to deal with either of these creatures in a fight should it come to that.

Still, the Goblin had helped him and seemed to be willing to fight the Slime, and as the old adage went ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’, so with a lack of anything else to do Jacob cast his Shield spell on the Goblin.

@Gardevoiran

@Zeroth@Old Amsterdam@Tatsu@CriticalHit

---

Before she could check the results of her work, a rather irritating thing happened. The lizard that had caused a disturbance over at the bonfire made her presence known. Her first response was to leap back, bare fangs and hiss in mild displeasure, but something rather odd happened before she could. The lizard spoke. Engilsh. Or at least, it was a language she could understand. Her green eyes widened in response, immediately loosing all hostility that she might have had.

"Oh well," She mused to herself, laying on her belly and propping her head up with one claw. "This is a pleasant surprise. Another of my kind who can speak." She decided not to bring up the fact that she was rather irate about the fact that Rain foiled her plans to steal a pot or similar item from the goblins. Not that she got a chance to anyways - before she was even halfway done two more speaking lizards made their presence known. "My my, four of us!" She chuckled loudly. "And all can speak the queens bloody english, as they say. Perhaps my day has been made a bit better, heh." On to the subject though...

"Well, my dear scaly kin, I am attempting to melt a hole in the stone here. I happen to have a few skills relating to Alchemy. I need something to make them in, so I have decided to make it myself. Since you are all so kindly offering to help...if we keep a constant coating of our acid over the ground, it would likely speed up the process." Perhaps she could really use this to her advantage, if they'd be willing to keep helping her. "If you all help me in this endeavor as well as with gathering materials, I will let you have some of my potions for yourself."

---

Why wasn't this just fascinating! Four of her kin, all speaking, what....fun.

Rain wanted to grin, but found her mouth just wasn't up to such an arduous task. Such a shame, a beautiful smile could do wonders.

Maybe she could consider dealing with Crispy sooner than later, if these lizards showed they could cooperate. That damned goblin has proven himself an irritant over the week, quite possibly one of the leaders of the local tribe. If he was gone, well, perhaps the rest might become scattered. With them mostly out of the way, or at least less organized, she'd have an easier time getting food and learning more about this new body.

Moving forward, Rain was the first to add her poison to the bit on the ground.

"Name's Rain, by the way. Ninja, assassin, thief.... Whatever you want to call it all. I've got plans, but I need to learn more first. So, for now, I'm happy to assist." It was a simple statement that left much implied about the future.

Her gaze flitted towards the dark waters again, considering her options further.

Peter uses lesser force to break out a hole shaped like his body in the crystal. He goes in the hole to make casting magic even easier. in it he tries to continue firing these kinds of mana orbs to get closer and closer to a ray.

Well, that ended up as a tremendous failure. It seemed that obtaining new skills wasn’t as simple as that, which ended up with him locking eyes with the slime. He could try to fight the slime, given that he has enough healing herbs and weapon, but the body of the slime could make it so it ended up eating his only weapon and him, ending up his second life after little more than a week. Running away didn’t seem as much of a good idea as his goblin legs didn’t help at covering much ground, so there was a chance for the slime to catch up with him. What Eric would do to get out of this situation was taking a page from that fight earlier and offering some truce between them.

The green slime seemed to have some capability for reasoning given that it decided to go once he received some food instead of trying to attack the lizard for the other half so trying it and coming out alive didn’t seem that much of a stretch. Still locking eyes with the slime, he raised his hands, dropped his weapon and with only the healing herbs he grabbed he slowly closed the distance between the slime and him. Once close enough, Eric slowly placed the herbs into the ground near the slime and backed some steps away, hoping it would understand that he meant no harm. “I wanted to plant those in a place with more mana, but you can have them as a gift” Eric muttered to himself, not even sure if slimes can hear or understand him.

@Kazemitsu

Asura was mildly surprised the goblin backed down so quickly. The green child sized being dropped its rock...knife? and held its hands up in 'surrender' before starting to approach slowly. This COULD be a trick considering goblins were always shown as cruel tricksters and their fighting tactics always seemed kind of cheaty. So he kept his guard up until the goblin put some herbs down in front of him. 'Blinking' he looked down at the herbs, then back to the goblin.

Said goblin spoke, making a portion of Asura's goo slide up as if he were raising an eyebrow. Clearly a human gesture. Behind him was a patch of the herbs and he could only hold so many within his body. Shaking his body in a negative he started to work his 'mouth'. "Don't. Need." He burbled out, the voice was rough and liquidy and clearly strained. Trying to talk while being pure goo was difficult.

"Ugh. What happened..."

Orchid's head was pounding. She felt like she had drank her father's whiskey last night. Where was she? As the girl stood up memories flooded her mind. Flashes of things she barely remembers yet distinctively knows. She remembered seeing the bus hit her. The cold snow. A demon lord. Her emotions changed rapidly between confused, scared, aggressive, and nonplus. There was just so much going on in her head that she didn't really take in her surroundings until a good five minutes of standing still and doing nothing. That's when she also finally noticed something off about herself.

Normally Orchid was a big girl. Granted she wasn't going to make it to the basketball team, but she had a considerable amount of bulk. Except now she looked and felt small. And for some reason he skin was green. At first she just thought that maybe she didn't take a bath; that has happened before. But as she rubbed her hands the green didn't wipe off. Upon closer inspection she could see that it was her skin. "What?" In her confusion Orchid tried to find her phone but then discovered she had nothing; not even any clothes. Naked as a newborn babe. "WHAT!?" Suddenly very self conscious she looked for some cover or clothing. She hide behind a crystal, and in it's reflection everything slowly dawned onto her.

Pointed ears. Green skin. Large teeth. She looked a bit cuter than she had thought she would, but there was no denying it: Orchid had become a goblin. This was all so confusing to her but than the memories started to come back with a bit more clarity. She specifically her talk with the demon lord, though it was mainly one-sided. She remembered him insulting her profession and than giving her some skills. Something about animals and her strength. Sizing herself up Orchid certainly knew from appearance alone she'll probably be weaker than she was used to. Still, she can get stronger. She'll have to.

Once the initial panic over her new form was over Orchid knew she needed to leave and explore. She changed her mentality to that of a video game: this was a whole new world that she needed to learn how to play and eventually she'll get good enough to beat it. It was easier to do this than to fuss about with questions like how she got here or why. Surely those things will be revealed as she moves on into the plot. "Orchid... May name is Orchid. Okay. First thing's first: Let's survive."

---

It's been almost a week since Orchid had first awaken. Admittedly, things were tough at first. She had no idea where she could get anything to eat or clothes to wear. But, drawing back to her video game mentality as well as her own experience as a country girl, she knew two basic things: She had to eat off whatever greens didn't poison her, and she'll have to kill something for meat and clothes. Fortunately for her, she had found a small pool of water with some herbs around it. Nothing that seemed too familiar to her, but they didn't seem unpleasant. She collected them whenever she could. Chances are these were healing herbs or at least was good in a stew. However soon she would exhaust her meager supply of pool herbs and she'll need to go out to find more. She also learned to simply accept her current nudity for now; there wasn't nearly enough plant fiber here for her to try and make herself something, nor any animals for her to kill, skin, and turn into clothing. Of course she'll get clothes as soon as she could but for now modesty was the least of her worries.

Orchid did have a good stroke of luck however; She found a stick. Not just any twig, but a rather long, almost straight piece of wood. Almost a staff! There were a few nobs and branches on it that she had to chip off but otherwise it was a solid stick that Orchid knew she could use for various purposes. Poking dangerous things. Hunting for food. Reaching stuff too high for her. She thought about trying to make a stone spear of some sort, but she's never done that right stones and even if she had the right ones she had no string to tie the wood together. All she'd be doing was splitting her only good stick. No, for now she'll need to just stick to her stick and keep exploring. Though she did sharpen one end of the stick to make it extra stabby. She'll bludgeon people with the other end if she has to.

As Orchid explored soon she came across a strange sight: Fire. Excited, without thinking she ran towards the fire hoping to find others. She stepped into the open, her stick in hand, and her body fully exposed. She saw others here but then froze. She had no idea what to do from here. "H-Hello?"

---

@Zeroth@Kazemitsu@Knox
Knowing that he was far under-prepared to fight these goblins, Jason reluctantly backed off from the crystals. Wandering about the cave, he stopped to think for a moment; "Perhaps, if my rock shooting skill was more powerful.... I could kill those troublesome creatures...

Finding a large rock for target practice, Jason began practicing the technique he had used against the wisp, experimenting with angles, amount of water used, rock size, and more. He practiced, and practiced, and practiced... At least until Jason ran out of water... Heading back to the pond to replenish his reserves, he witnessed a small goblin timidly giving a handful of herbs to a red slime.

"Don't. Need." the red slime garbled out.

Jason was astonished, slimes could speak?!?!?!???

Intrigued with this new revelation, he moved towards the red slime, managing to gargle out, "Can. Speak?"

---

@Guy0fV4lor@ReusableSword@Kazemitsu@Knox

You are experiencing a fast rate of Skill Progression.

As Eric parlayed with the red slime, a green slime appeared to join the conversation. If anyone noticed that pixie floating around, they might wonder what its part was in this little gathering.

But now, two more goblins appeared in the distance, heading their way. They seemed more focused on Eric, giving the slimes a curious look but leaving them alone--though they still stayed wary. After all, life in this cave was always kill or be killed.

“Oi, yous!” One of them pointed at Eric. “Crispy wants all the younglings to come! Boss is comin’ back soon!”

“...What you doin’ anyway?” asked the other, scratching his head. “Why these slimes not fightin’ or runnin’?”

---

---

@Renny@Lucius Cypher

1 Hard Rock added to Inventory.
Equipped Hard Rock.

“Aha, there’s one!” As Yoda made a big show of smashing something on the ground, Crispy approached him with a smirk. “What you smashin’, a bug? Ya don’t gotta eat grubs no mores!” He motioned for the younger goblin to get up. “Boss is gonna take yous and the other younglings huntin’ today! Time for ya to start workin’!”

Just then, Orchid approached, and timidly called out.

1 Sharp Stick added to Inventory.
Equipped Sharp Stick.

“Huh?” Crispy, and presumably Yoda, turned and approached the female goblin. Crispy looked over her appraisingly--the glare from the scarred, milky white eye seeming much more intense than his normal one. If she hadn’t already been naked the way he was looking at her might have certainly made her feel so. “Was you one of the Boss’s kids?” Crispy asked her. “And how long ago was you born, now?”

---

---

@Tatsu@Old Amsterdam@Rune_Alchemist@CriticalHit
Ash would find that her own poison did seem to be eating away at the stone, but very slowly. And over time, the hissing and bubbling of the caustic liquid grew quieter and less frequent--so apparently, a lizards’ venom did not stay poisonous forever after it left their bodies. But as she waited, soon other lizards began to appear--and surprisingly they could all talk. All four of them. Did it ever occur to any of these reptiles that maybe only the four of them could talk? Why hadn’t any other lizards they had encountered so far--like the one that had attacked Nathaniel up on his perch--tried to speak to them?

An agreement was struck, for them to help each other out. Rain was the first to add her own venom to the puddle, and a slight wisp of steam began to rise from the poisonous solution as the stony bowl began to expand. What was more, as Ash watched the poison, something new happened.

Used Skill: Alchemy I
---Fanged Lizard Venom--
Properties: Liquid. Exothermic. Poisonous. Acidic.
A compound of the neurotoxin produced in the Fanged Lizard’s internal sacs and elements of the atmosphere. Highly caustic.
---Fanged Lizard Venom + Fanged Lizard Venom---
Compatibility 100%
Reaction: Potent Fanged Lizard Venom
Properties: Liquid. Exothermic. Poisonous. Acidic.
A larger quantity of Fanged Lizard Venom, making it much more effective.
---Alchemy Complete---

---

---

@Gobby@Duoya
As Marc darted towards the cave’s exit, he might very well have made it past the two goblin guards. For one thing they were still on the lookout for that pixie, as they were hungry after a long day of gathering firewood with the Boss’s party. But then, said pixie up on the ledge over the archway began to cause some trouble of his own.

As he threw each rock at the cracked stalactite section, the rocks themselves would of course fall down. One hefty specimen landed right in front of Marc’s nose, nearly on top of him, and the sound drew the attention of one of the guards.

“Oi! That rat looks pretty tas--” The next rock landed on this goblin’s head. “Yeargh! Who threw that!?”

A third rock landed between Marc and the goblins, who now brandished their sharpened sticks and took up positions in front of the archway. One kept his eyes on the Dire Rat and the other looked up--just as one of the smaller rocks pelted him on the forehead.

“It’s that pixie up there! He’s throwin’ rocks at us!” The guard pointed--just as Puck let fly with one more.

CRACK!

A large stalactite, disturbed by the repeated impacts even though they were small, began to shift. And its weight caused several of its neighbors to shift as well.

CRACK!

A few of the smaller stalactites, and the one larger one, all fell at once, dragging down chunks of earth and rock with them. The two goblins screamed just before the dust clouds and sounds of raining rocks hid them--and the archway--from view. Marc, too, would find himself in danger of death from above. And without realizing it, Puck may have completely defeated his purpose--what if all this caused the exit to be sealed up!? But before he could finish that line of thought, something else shifted.

CRACK!

With a big chunk missing out of the ceiling, the rest of the stone around it was settling into place. Thus, the ledge upon which Puck hid himself also shifted, and when it did so several loose stones came tumbling out of the crevices behind the pixie, headed right for him--!

---

---

@King Cosmos@Gardevoiran@Legion02@UltraCraftGames

1 Curved Rock added to Inventory
Equipped Curved Rock.

As Digbie threw his only tool, his only weapon--his only friend--at the Slime, the purple ball of goo let out a surprised blurble. The stone struck it--then bounced off, spinning somewhere through the air nearby. The Slime had a spot of darker purple on its body now, but it didn’t seem particularly dissuaded--after all, it was the most resistant type of monster to physical damage in the cave.

With a gurgle, the slime balled up one pseudopod and lashed out at Digbie! But just before it struck him, a glowing aura enveloped his body, thanks to his newfound pixie friend. The slime’s attack pushed the goblin away, but ultimately he was really none the worse for wear. Just disarmed.

Now it was their turn again...would they Run, Fight, Use an Item, or Defend!?
***
While Peter trained he learned a few things. The Mana Crystals refilled his MP, but just because a Wisp was a magically charged creature it did not mean that they would heal him. Only the Healing Herbs could do that, but like the crystals it just took one of them to fully recover his HP. But every time he tried to hold a crystal, or carve a hole in one and sit inside it, or anything else of that nature, the crystal seemed to automatically be absorbed by his body as soon as his MP got low. Then it would be refilled, and he’d have to find a new crystal. At least it seemed like all his practicing with his various spells was working out.

You are experiencing a fast rate of Skill Progression

But, while he was so busy focusing on what he was doing, something else creeped among the crystals. Just as he finished refilling his MP for the umpteenth time, a black shadow behind him leaped up! The Dire Rat’s fangs flashed in the glow of the crystals, a disgusting yellow set of sharp incisors--!
***
As Israi hunted in some secluded area of the cave, he finally found his gossamer-winged mark. As he charged forward, his Lesser Force came down like a hand on top of the pixie. It didn’t hurt the creature, but it did achieve the Wisp’s primary purpose of holding it down just for a bit--he had caught it from a good angle, it couldn’t get its hands under itself to push back against the wall and its wings couldn’t flap to generate any lift. His Mana Orb hit it point blank, and the pixie gave a pitiful scream.

You have no MP remaining

But now that he had used up his own magic, he couldn’t hold the pixie down anymore. As it escaped it fluttered angrily, casting its Minor Heal spell on itself before diving down at Israi with a small foot readied for a kick--!

Peter starts to quickly strafe around releasing mana orbs at the dire rat. After hes low on mana he quickly flies onto the crystals regenerates his mana and shoots a few more. If this still isnt enough he does it again. This also offers as great practice as he tries to use some things he learned during his training.

Luckily Jacob had reacted in time to save the Goblin from a nasty bruise, but unfortunately it didn’t look like the Slime had been at all bothered by having that rock thrown at it. It didn’t seem like either of them would be able to do much to hurt the Slime, unless the Goblin had another weapon that Jacob hadn’t noticed, and there was nothing in this tiny crevice that would be of use.

That meant they would have to run. Jacob briefly considered telling the Goblin to jump so he could grab him and float the two of them to the cavern floor, but another look at their size difference convinced Jacob that was a bad idea. He could just fly away, but he didn’t want to leave his saviour to this things mercy; the Shield spell has only lasted for that one attack so if the Slime decided to attack again the Goblin would be more than just pushed back.

The Goblin had tunnelled into this crevice somehow, so there should be a way back out as well. He just needed to distract the Slime long enough for the Goblin to escape.

The Pixie flew up to the opening of the crevice and started slapping the rock wall with the palm of his hand to make some noise; at the same time he started calling out to the Slime. He wanted to try and get the Slime’s attention on him for the moment and away from the Goblin.

“Hey, you big ball of jello. Wasn’t it me you were after? Come on you overgrown dessert, come get me.”

Jacob didn’t know how smart this thing was, or even if it could hear him, but hopefully it had a short attention span or a short temper. Either way, he hoped the thing would come after him instead of his new friend.

Just in case his plan did work, he cast a Shield on himself.

---

@Guy0fV4lor@ReusableSword@Kazemitsu@Knox

Okay, the slime had answered him, which meant that not only could it speak, but that it also understood what Eric had said, they clearly were more intelligent that he had given them credit for. Given that it had refused his gift, Eric went to grab the healing herbs he had put into the floor, since they could still be of some use to him. What he didn't expect would be the green slime coming to where they were, first Eric thought the green slime had come to the rescue of the red one, but instead it seemed to be curious about the fact that the other had talked, even managing to speak some words.

This was an odd situation to say the least, given that the green slime didn't know that they could speak, one would assume that a creature would know if they could make sounds, so it made him curious if there was something strange going on with these two slimes. Unfortunately, before he could get a word out, one of the members of the goblin tribe called for him and asked about the two slimes. He knew that the others goblin probably wouldn't care if the slimes could talk or not, they would just want them as food, so it would be wise to diverge the goblin's attention to another thing. "I'm just collectin' herbs, these slimes are probably restin' or somethin', not like it matters to us so let's go before we're late" he said as he grabbed the other goblin and made his way to the bonfire. He could probably get the chance to meet with those odd slimes in the future, but for now he had to make the other goblin go away.

---

@Zeroth@Kazemitsu
Seeing as to how the small goblin quickly led away the larger goblin, it was easy to assume that the small one was unlikely to be a threat in the future. Looking back to the other slime, Jason knew he may have just discovered another one of the demon king’s ‘Heroes’, ”You. Come. Train. With. Me? he garbled out. Though he certainly was very curious, and had many questions, Jason did not wait for an answer, he needed a way to fight these goblins. Moving over to the pond, he filled himself with water once again, and found a large rock. During his training earlier, Jason had a hallucination; ”You are experiencing a fast rate of Skill Progression” that meant he was making progress. Replicating his earlier training, Jason would continue practicing until running out of water, return to the pond, refill, and continue once more.

Though he knew the message he saw earlier was a good sign, Jason knew it wasn’t enough, no matter how many times the same message came up, he would keep going, training until he received a much more significant notification.

Asura wobbled a bit as he looked over at another slime. A deep green color and it also spoke, asking if he spoke. "Barely." He gurgled out. That word didn't sound as strained, it seemed with practice he could regain full sentences and not this broken nonsense. After he spoke more goblins showed up, making him a little more wary. Three or four versus one wasn't good odds if things got nasty. Three versus two was a little more even given the slimes tanky nature and the readily available herbs.

But the goblin that had surrendered was trying to shoo them off, saying they'd be late for hunting. What did goblins hunt? What being would lead the hunt? Turning to the other slime he gave what resembled a shrug. "Should avoid gobs. Hunt bad." He garbled out. With that he collected as many herbs as he could, he probably wouldn't be able to come back here until this hunt was over. He couldn't camouflage either, red and orange didn't blend with brown and gray. The green could possibly pass itself off as moss or something.

The green one spoke again, a word at a time. "Train in what?" He questioned, following along after gathering his herbs up until his 'pockets' were filled. It seemed the green one was spitting rocks at another rock using water pressure. Tilting his head he went over to the target and put himself in the way. Taking a couple hits before moving back out of the way. He had Physical Defense ONE which logically told him he could make it better. Probably by taking hits if his gamers sense rung true.

---

The goblin raised his arms to brace for the attack, when suddenly he saw the shining aura around him as the pixie casted a spell of some sort. It was interesting how those with common interests can act together despite being complete strangers to each other. Maybe they can actually do this as friends and beat this monster down into the dirt! Still, he got pushed back a bit, but that was better than being hurt by this slime!

Looking around for other weapons, Digbie found nothing but meager rocks. Now, to the common man, you wouldn't use a stone against something that didn't seem like it could get hurt by a stone, but to Digbie, you see it as your only choice of tool, and if it was a tool to dig through slime, it was a tool to dig through slime. The goblin lifted up another stone, a rather round one, and watched as his new friend taunted the slimy beast.

"Maybe you can cause a few rocks to fall on it?!" Digbie called towards his pixie friend as he backpedaled through his tunnel, getting a good running start before just rocketing the stone he had grabbed prior at the slime. If the pixie could cause rocks to tumble onto the slime's head, it'd be a lot of damage dealt. After throwing the stone, Digbie raised his arms up to block any attacks (though it was with amateurish form) as he slowly walked backwards. Hopefully he could get another hit in soon.

Ardur The Pixie

watching the others >>> Experiments with Lizards /// week 2 // Daylight?

The mana crystal he had hoped to cling too disappeared after he reached it. He did however, feel the rush of energy return to him as he fell. The pixie momentarily lost altitude to where he was a bit more noticeable to those on the ground. He had seen the mana orbs floating around at times and knew he wasn’t the strongest or the biggest thing around here that could fly. Being wary of this Ardur tried to remain still as he regained his bearings.

Used a Mana Crystal.

MP is fully restored.

All this thinking about magic did remind him of a childhood movie and a song associated with it. “What kind of magic spell to use? Slime and snails or puppy dog tails, Thunder or lightning, something frightening.” The pixie sung while flying effortlessly above the pool, twisting and dancing this way and that. Even in this rather spontaneous and playful mood he was still weary not to drift too close to the water’s surface and closer to that thing that was lurking below the water. “Dance magic, dance. Dance magic, dance. Put that baby spell on me. Slap that baby make him free!”

He was a bit unsure of where this sudden singing came from but assumed it was part of a pixie's nature. Anyways he wasn’t entirely to sure what the other creatures were doing. The slime's seem to be gathering around a goblin with a few others moving towards them. “An ambush maybe? Or a long con?” he wasn’t entirely sure of what they were doing, but they seemed strange. Ardur decided to continue scouting around and figure out what this was all about now that he was a bit more confident n his abilities.

At the very least he now knew that these blue crystals were used for mana. The Pixie also noticed that the small green goblins had been collecting these crystals but was unsure of their purpose. He did decide that investigating the bonfire would be interesting but stopped on a small ledge when he noticed a small gathering of reptiles. Now Ardur was still on guard even through his entire trip over here but otherwise continued to observe the fascinating creatures around him.

These lizards had begun to form what looked like a small puddle of their own saliva. This saliva seemed acidic in nature. He could not tell what they could be talking about, if he could understand them at all, or too what end pooling their saliva did. Until the stone floor seemed to bubble and slowly dissolve. “I wonder” he thought aloud. The Pixie in him was yearning to cause some trouble, and he also agreed. He took some time to find another small crystal like the one he dropped into the pool earlier. Ardur did notice that the crystals n the ceiling where more numerous than the ones on the walls and ground, but they looked a bit smaller.

Finding a small crystal that didn’t absorb into him the moment he touched it. He was careful to break it out of its place. It had to be small, or he didn’t believe he could carry it. The small creature found another roost above the lizards and their growing pool with the small crystal in hand. Being very careful just as he was the last time, Ardur dropped the crystal aiming for the acidic pool below and watched. “Nothing ventured nothing gained” he spoke out loud. It didn’t look like there was much in the way of danger nearby, and he didn’t think that they could reach him up here if things went bad.

@Zeroth@Rune_Alchemist@Tatsu@Old Amsterdam@CriticalHit

The world is so dark. It's so so dark. She didn't remember much of her first day, everything was blurry and poorly lit. The second day was a bit clearer, she remembered a jagged blue object that made her feel... sated. Still hungry, but she could survive around this. Some flying things would occasionally pester her, but she would snarl and bat them away. How was she batting them away, she had no hands... The third day was when things finally came into focus and she could see the world around her for what it was. A nearly pitch black cave, filled with all sorts of wondrous creatures including pixies, goblins, even a slime or two. She should've been scared of all these monsters, but on the fourth day she caught sight of her own reflection in a pool of water. She too was a monster, but she didn't feel panicked at all. It felt right in a way. On the fifth day she remembered.

This was the start of her new life, she could be better now. She was a being of pure magic, meaning she needed magic to survive. This meant that the crystals that made her feel less hungry most likely emanated magic. But she was still hungry. So on the sixth day, she began training. She figured out her new powers, she could fire a blast of magic and she could use telekinesis to lift objects and throw them. Finally on the seventh day, she began to train her powers. She would use her telekinesis to pick up rocks and throw them at the crystals she fed off, chipping away at them slowly but surely. After chipping away at the crystal for long enough she would begin fighting pixies that came to steal the crystals, firing magic shots at them to drive them off until she began to get tired. Once she got tired she would consume the magic crystals and start the process over.

There were slipups throughout the day, at one point two pixies banded together to distract her and steal the crystals she had gathered, that ended poorly for her. She even gave up for an hour before picking herself back up and starting the process over again. Originally she was just going to let it go, but then she got angry and decided she was going to get revenge on those pixies eventually. this was a new life, she wasn't going to let anyone walk all over her this time around. Never again. Throughout the week she fed off of the green herbs that had been growing in places of sunlight, they were bitter but edible. They even made her feel a little better after she got her ass kicked pretty hard by one tough goblin who wanted crystals. She would have to kick that goblin's ass too, he pissed her off.

---

And here we are now. Mourningstar was watching from the shadows as a young goblin and pixie fought off a slime together, anxiously wondering if this was worth getting involved in. It was a pixie for one, a species she had very poor experiences with. But on the other hand, they could talk. And the fact that they were willing to cooperate with each other meant they had the capacity to be friendly. Finally she schooled her nonexistent face and let out a loud hardy laugh, attempting to make her feminine voice sound threatening as she shot a magic shot from the shadows at the slime. "Rejoice pathetic creatures! For the mighty Mourningstar has decided to lend aid in defeating this vile ball of jello! Does jello exist in this world? Probably not. Now let me take care of this! And with that Mourningstar joined the fight, staying at a distance and shooting magic shots at the slime attacking Shovel Boy.

Orchid steeled herself as the other goblins looked at her. She held her stick close to her body, not only to cover her body but also in case they were going to fight her. One of the goblins leering at her asked if she was one of the boss's kids and how long she was born. She didn't know any boss so she shook her head. "A week ago. I think? I don't exactly see the sun down here." Orchid looked at the other goblins with a scowl, but also a slight blush on her face. "Um... I don't suppose you guys have any clothes I can have? And food, maybe?" Another goblin approached and demanded her stick, to which she replied with a much sterner glare and pointing the sharp end at him. "I will stab you."

@Zeroth@Renny

Ah, so that's why she's gone and barfed venom all over the floor. Ryuu thought to himself as he watched the caustic goop do its work on the stony floor. Ryuu listened intently as the others spoke, bringing himself closer to the pool of acid as they conversed. The idea of a lizard with Alchemy skills was... odd at the very least, but then again so was the idea of them all somehow being able to speak, and that clearly didn't stop them. Even so, Ryuu decided he'd assist the onyx scaled lizard, at worst she'd be leading him on a wild goose chase. If she wasn't trying to fool him, this could be a golden opportunity for Ryuu to make an early ally of one of his own kin. Besides, these were the only other creatures he'd seen so far that could speak. There were the Goblins, but they were far from what Ryuu would call intelligent. Besides, he was fairly certain that they would much rather try to kill and eat him rather than reason with the reptile in the first place.

"Alright then, I'll bite. mainly because I want to see where this ends." he said as he gestured a claw to the sizzling venom.

Without further ado, Ryuu stepped in front of the pool of mixed venoms from the ebony lizard, and the blue scaled one, the latter having revealed it's name as Rain in the process. He allowed his scaly, reptilian maw to be flooded by the same toxins he used to bring down prey countless times in the previous week before expelling it all on top of the same spot the others had drenched.

"Since we're working together now, I might as well introduce myself. My name is Ryuu, pleasure to meet you all, my scaly brothers and sisters."

As he examined the other three lizards and the caustic pool, Ryuu remembered the Goblin's bonfire from earlier. With the stunt that Rain had pulled, the Gobs would likely be on high alert looking for scaly sniper. He'd do well to avoid them, unless perhaps this new reptilian council of theirs would like to work together again...

If he was physically capable of such a feat, Ryuu would have donned a devilish grin as he looked first to the camp, then back to his scaly fellows.

"I know it's really sudden of me to say this, but would any of you lovely lizards like to go... Goblin hunting? I know for a fact that one of us has already lit their proverbial fire, and if we split up, we're likely to get killed as they search... But with the four of us working together that screeching pint-sized pyromaniac shouldn't stand a chance! Well, what do you say?" Ryuu asked as he awkwardly gestured towards the group with a claw.

Note to self: don't try to gesture with this body

@Zeroth@Rune_Alchemist@Old Amsterdam@Tatsu