"Hmm…."

I tilt my head, not sure how to proceed. In front of me, the path splits into three tunnels, diving further underground. The floor and walls of the first one are all bright red, the second is completely green, and the last one, blue.

"Hmmm…"

Until now, I've chosen the paths that seemed to dive further in and avoided those winding around the areas I had already visited. But the paths in front of me… they all look the same, and not a single one seems better than the others.

Of course, there may be no path to the dungeon core by following the paths, given the nature of the 'walkable' walls. But we'll get to that when I've explored all the other passages.

Before we get to that point, I need to choose. Will it be the red, the green, or the blue?

"Hmmm…!" Every time I groan, it's louder than the last. "Yep, definitely, no idea."

After spending about twenty minutes in this place, I've overcome the dizziness produced by the lack of color variety and can finally move normally. Still, I haven't found any clues, so…

"Alright. Red, Green, Blue! Go and check the three tunnels. Go forward for twenty seconds and then come back."

My three Good Followers – Red, Green, and Blue – follow my instructions and dive into the tunnels with the same color as their name, disappearing from my sight shortly after. Well, not disappearing completely, because I can still see their silhouettes through the translucent mucus-like walls, but you know what I mean.

Are you curious why they're called Red, Green, and Blue? Haha. It's stupid, but very practical.

I never know which one is which, because I haven't given any names to the three Good Followers, and they look about the same. So I came up with an idea. I have three minions, and everything has the same three colors…

I'm sure you can imagine the rest.

Yes, you're right. Now, my support monsters are covered in slime of their respective color, making them easy to identify. There's no way I'm touching any of them, though.

According to my recently increased player level, I believe I should be able to bring four Good Followers with me. But to bring four, I'd need to have four, and I just have three. It doesn't matter anyway, because today's magic number is three, and my idea wouldn't have worked with four monsters.

Cyam doesn't count. He's my kidnapper. His spot is always reserved, and he must remain safe under all circumstances. After all, he's this team's most important member, myself included.

"I feel like I've got this backwards… Nah, that can't be."

By sending one Good Follower through each path, I'll be able to check for traps and unexpected dangers. It's a shame the map won't be updated unless I myself explore it, but knowing about traps and other dangers should be enough.

I wait about a minute for the three Good Followers to come and go.

Red is the first one to come back. When it comes out of the tunnel, its HP is still full and it doesn't seem it encountered any dangers. The red path is safe.

Green takes a while longer to come back, and when it does, its whole body is covered by green slimes sticking to it, although all of them but one are just critters. My monster must have taken longer to come back because it's been slowed down by them. The green path isn't as safe, but doesn't appear too dangerous.

I use Chain Lightning to stun the slimes and let Cyam do his job while waiting for Blue.

Blue… even after more than a minute has passed, blue doesn't come back. Which means it encountered danger. Through the walls, I can vaguely see its struggling figure, as if fighting against something that isn't visible.

My monster is in danger!

"Blue! You aren't allowed to die until I say so!" I shout, rushing into the blue tunnel, clearly the most dangerous of the three.

So what if this is the most dangerous path!? I can't let my minions die! If they have to die, they must do so when I'm ordering them to die or sacrifice themselves, and not whenever they feel like dying! That, I can't allow.

I run, skillfully turning and twisting my body around to avoid touching the gooey walls. Then, right after turning the corner, I suddenly stop. In front of me, there's an enormous bright blue slime, big enough that it almost completely blocks the whole passage.

Blue is struggling inside that slime. Its HP is quickly falling, and the HP bar is almost depleted. My monster doesn't have much time left.

"Devoured by a slime… Tsk, tsk, tsk! You must be better than this, Blue! Look at Green and Red! They knew how to avoid the sli– Huh…?"

Wait a moment. Where's Red? I could swear it was following me…

When I look around, I see another Good Follower struggling against something barely visible. When I pay closer attention, I realize there's a large dome shape growing out of the wall, engulfing Red whole.

"Shit! This is bad…" I observe in horror as the slime slowly dives into the gooey wall, 'kidnapping' my monster. "Hey! It's me who does the kidnappings here!"

One slime is fine, but two? I can do my best to try and save Blue, or secure Red before the slime goes away… Either way, I'll need Green's support to achieve it.

As I've said, I won't accept any deaths unless it's me who ordered them, so I'll save Blue first.

When I look up, I see the giant slime's HP bar near the ceiling. The HP bar, designed to stand out regardless of the terrain so players can't cheese it, is the single element that isn't blue in this place. Of course, this doesn't include me or my minions.

Thanks to Blue struggling for so long, and the poison skill I've given to all my Good Followers, the slime's HP isn't full and decreasing at a steady rate. Still, since all slimes have high HP and the damage from being engulfed is pretty high, my minion will die before the slime does.

That is… Unless I prevent it.

"Green, attack!"

Following my order, the single free one of my support monsters engages in combat with the giant slime. The slime, slowed by Blue inside it, takes the hits and retaliates. Not that it could have dodged anyway, with that huge size, and the slime's naturally abysmal speed and agility.

While the two fight, I cast Chaotic Beam on the slime's huge body. The multicolored light beam lands on the slime's surface, creating a light spectacle that momentarily breaks this dungeon's monotony. But it doesn't last long, and the slime's HP doesn't change much.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Shit… damned slimes and their absurd HP…"

What should I do? Cold Blast is too basic; it will take ages to kill the slime with it. And Chaotic Beam costs lots of MP… Chain Lightning is useless against a single target, and Grand Finale isn't even an option.

If I only use Chaotic Beam, the most efficient one, I might run out of MP by the time the slime dies…

It's at this moment that I realize something. After being hit by my skill, the slime has been affected by a status effect. This might change what I do from now on, so I quickly check which status effect has been applied.

"Slow…!? Fucking useless status effect! Slow, on an already sluggish slime!? And one that doesn't seem like it wants to move at all, at that!? Useless! Garbage!" This is the problem with random things. But, well… I love them anyway. There's nothing like the thrill of possibilities. The thrill of not knowing what will happen.

Having no option left or any more time to waste – I've wasted enough time already – I start casting one Chaotic Beam after the other, until I run out of MP.

As I watch the slime's HP about to disappear, I'm tempted to give the order to stop fighting and capture it. To disperse the idea from my head, and since there aren't any proper walls nearby, I punch my face hard. I don't have time to capture the slime. I have to kill it if I want to have a chance to save Red.

The combined efforts of the two Good Followers are enough to finish off the slime. I leave them to their devices and use this time to take some distance from the ongoing battle.

With a popping sound, the slime dissolves into a large wave of blue goo that floods the surroundings, releasing Blue, and painting our surroundings… in the same color they already had. Luckily, I expected this to happen, and I moved far enough so that the gooey wave doesn't reach my position.

"Good job, my minions! Now, to rescue Red."

Without delay, I immediately start looking around, searching for Red's figure. I find it quickly: a struggling shape suspended in mid-air, somewhere in the distance. The walls being semi-transparent make it very easy to see some things, but they also make it very hard to know the distance between two points or how many 'walls' there are in between.

"Look at my monster, happily struggling inside its blue protective bubble… Hahaha." I chuckle at my lame joke.

Even if being swallowed is a danger, I'm sure there are way more slimes camouflaged everywhere. Being eaten whole by one means you 'only' take damage from that one and are protected from the others.

It's like your own private gooey protective bubble, although it's a protective bubble that will eventually kill and eat you.

Using the minimap as guidance, I start running towards Red's position. In a straight line, the passage quickly ends in a 'wall', which forces me to take another path. I don't avoid the straight path because 'I don't want to be covered in goo'. The reason I avoid crossing walls is to avoid other hiding slimes, putting us in danger and further delaying Red's rescue.

I chase after the humanoid shape suspended in mid-air, choosing the paths that seem to lead in the same general direction. The blue giant slime is smart enough to keep itself inside the blue areas, as not a single time have I seen its full shape during the chase.

In a short time, the distance has shortened significantly, but I reach a dead end.

"Hmm… all other paths take a huge detour…" I scratch my head in thought. "The only way forward is… *Gulp* Is through this wall."

According to the minimap, there's a narrow wall to my left that connects with another passage, and, if my calculations are right, that passage should allow me to reach Red.

"Alright. Here goes everything…!"

I hold my breath and, with my right hand extended, close my eyes and step forward. I feel the wet and slimy mucus offer a slight resistance, slowly extending over my hand and arm, until every single hair of my face and even the clothes are covered by it. I can feel its weight pressing on my eyes, and I can also feel it slowly drip into every hole, like my ears and nose.

Once my whole body comes out of the green mucus on the other side of the wall, I shiver in disgust.

"Bhuaaagh…! I'll have to take a shower after this… No, better two or three… baths."

I know that whatever happens in the game has no relation to reality, but… But this is disgusting as hell, and I'll have to do something to forget this sensation.

Well, at least there were no hidden slimes in this wall. That's something, right…!?

With my whole body covered in green slime, I somehow wipe the slime out of my eyes to remove the green-tinted vision and check my surroundings. Right in front of me, there's a three-way division: one path goes to the left, one to the right, and the third one goes forward.

I wait for Green and Blue to come out of the wall – or should I say Green and Green Two, now that Blue is also covered in green goo? – and I immediately start running forward, towards Red.

Red's figure appears shortly in front of me, buried inside the blue wall, the same color and texture as the slime that swallowed it.

"Die! You're going to pay for all the pain you've made me suffer!" I shout at the unseen slime. I can't see the slime itself, but now that I'm close enough, I do see the HP bar, so I know its exact position.

'As if Red's position wasn't enough to locate the slime…'

"Not now!"

'Fine…'

I push Green and Green Two (Blue) into the wall to attack the slime, and observe everything from outside. I prepare to cast Chain Lightning with all the MP I've barely managed to recover to stun the slime when the time comes.

I shouted 'die', but I won't allow this damn slime to have a simple death. I plan on capturing it and making it suffer! I'll make it suffer for all eternity!

"You'll be my next (un)willing test subject. Fufufu…! Hahaha!"

When the slime's HP falls below 10%, I give the order to stop attacking and let the poison do the rest. When the poison fades away, I cast the Chain Lightning and immediately put my hands inside the wall to capture the now stunned slime.

Luckily, this time I don't have to go fully inside because the slime is so big that its body almost protrudes from the wall.

"Hey, why am I doing this?" I tilt my head. "Shouldn't it be Cyam, the one capturing the monsters? Oh well, I'm in the middle anyway..."

When the capturing process finishes, I stand up and look around. Around me, Blue (Green), Blue Two (Red), and Blue Three (Green Two, previously Blue) await instructions. Two of them are close to dying, but their Vitality Aura is kicking in and slowly restoring their HP.

Hmm… Is it just me, or are the names starting to get a bit too complex? I'll have to dip them in their respective colors again to avoid confusion.

Anyway, that isn't important. What matters is that there's no sign of Cyam anywhere.

"Where is Cyam– Oh, right! I left Cyam where the paths split, capturing all the stunned slimes… Should I go find him?"

I take a look at the dungeon map and mentally retrace my steps, designing a path to go back to where all this chaos began, where the path split into three paths, one of each of the three colors.

"...Will he even be alive?" The chances of Cyam being eaten by another slime are high. He has no battle capabilities, after all… "I guess I'll have to find out."

Right when I decide to go back and search for Cyam, something stops me.

*Splash!* A sticky substance hits my shoulder, sprinkling red mucus on my face and body. Following it, I hear two more splashes, and watch as more red and green mucus splashes everywhere.

"Hey! Now, Red and Green are back to being red and green! …partially, at least." Should I thank the attacker for saving me some trouble?

This is a serious problem, though. When I look towards the direction the projectiles came from, all I see are the dungeon's green and red walls. Whichever kind of slime attacked us, I can't see it at all.

*Splash! Splash!*

The slime rain doesn't let go, but the only thing we can see are the slime projectiles coming out of the walls at a fast speed. It's as if the dungeon itself is attacking us!

"Reveal yourselves, cowards!"

*Splash! Splas, splash! Splash!*

As expected, my shout achieves nothing, and the unfair battle continues, even growing in intensity.

"The faction I find the hardest to deal with is Amorphous, the slimes. Although they aren't the ones with the most customization options, they do have a lot of options, and it's precisely this balance between lots and not too many options that I find annoying. Against other factions like the Flesh Monstrosities, I'm forced into the 'expect anything' mentality, but the Amorphous options are limited, and I can't avoid trying to predict what they'll do, often confusing myself and bringing useless tactics and monsters to the fight.

As if this weren't enough, they're the single faction who can freely customize the size and colors of their monsters, making everything even more difficult and confusing…"

- Excerpt of an interview with a high-ranking DMA player.

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