A Dunce, a Slime, and a Dragon Walk Into a bar

  Destiny was so proud. She had a second creature type. Sure it was only a slime, but it was bigger than an ant. Progress had been made. Expanding her dungeon proved to be not very exciting so she had made the slime. Not knowing what to do next she noticed she had absorbed some elements that could be added to her slime template so she began to experiment.

  The water slimes were fast and agile, but they couldn’t do much damage. Rock slimes were tougher and packed a serious punch, but they were incredibly slow. The mud slime was in between the two as one would expect. Her favorite was the shiny metal slime. It was pretty and a rainbow of colors reflected off of it.

  Not having anything else to do, she cleared an area around the essence vein she was following and started creating armies of slimes to fight each other.  She set up different formations and different mixes of slime and carefully recorded the results. Once there was a victor, she would set the remaining slimes to the side and save them for a later round.

  *****

  John had finally done it. He had split the targeting component and been credited with having learned Essence Manipulation. He was a little frustrated because he didn’t remember it ever being this hard before. He assumed it might be because he started this integration with such a low level and low stats.

  He looked over at gumdrop and just shook his head. The slime was whipping himself through an obstacle course that was actively attacking him with blades, crushing stones, spikes that would shoot out of the ground or ceiling, and still attacking a series of targets that the wonder was moving around with sharpened stone spikes on the end of his tentacles. The speed and accuracy that the slime could manipulate his essence was amazing. John’s pride insisted that the slime had to be the avatar of a god slime that had decided to integrate into this planet for some incomprehensible reason. Nothing new to the system could advance that quickly.

  Maybe I need to train my intelligence, so John walked over to the control crystal and made his selection. He felt the wonder create something behind him and turned around. There was a familiar child’s toy that he had seen several times throughout his many integrations sitting there. A bench with 6 differently shaped holes and 6 differently shaped objects. John looked back at the control crystal. Are you making fun of me?

  John walked over to the wonder and picked up the cylinder and placed it in the round hole, and he was rewarded with a red light. Trying again, he carefully aligned the cylinder and once again got a red light. Confused, he turned the cylinder around and once again received a red light. After several more attempts, he thought maybe the wonder was malfunctioning. Gumdrop came flopping over and stopped to watch John for a few seconds before reaching out a tentacle and picking up the cylinder when John sat it down. He turned the cylinder and placed it in the rectangular hole and received a green light. He then patted John on the head before pulling himself over to the control crystal. John threw the 5 other objects at the slime who caught them with his tentacles and flipped them back to John.

  *****

  Josh had barely made it over the mountain where Xeno had dropped him off before he was picked up and returned to his base and given a quick medical exam before his debriefing. During the debriefing, he had told of his experience with Xeno and then been asked the same questions in different ways over and over.

  “So, in summation Captain, you would say the Dragon defended himself with ease, shot you down accidentally with just as much ease, and then gave you a ride back to base while healing you and advising you not to assume all Dragons would behave as he did and offering assistance and training if we wanted it. Is that correct?” the Colonel in charge of intelligence for the base asked.

  “Yes, sir.” Josh answered.

  “And you believe we have nothing in our conventional arsenal that would pose a threat to Xeno?”

  “Yes, sir.” Josh answered.

  The colonel looked at the base commander who nodded. “All right, Captain. That is all we need. You may return to duty.”

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  Josh stood and saluted. Before he reached the door, he stopped and asked, “Sir. I would like to volunteer if you need a liaison to work with Xeno or if we decide to seek his cooperation in any way.”

  The colonel once again looked at the base commander who spoke, “Captain, we’ve been ordered by the World Council to take out any high level creatures or individuals we locate by any means necessary.” Josh started to interrupt, but the commander continued. “Relax, I’m not going to send our boys up there against a dragon that you assess to be beyond our capabilities. I assume you understand, that is not to be repeated?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Then you are dismissed. Get back to your unit and we’ll keep you in mind in case anything comes up.”

  Josh left headquarters and returned to his unit, but was informed his commander was in the hangar. Entering the hangar, he saw one of the base’s special forces teams loading sheets of wood and paint onto one of their X-95’s.

  The team's master sergeant saw Josh stop and jogged over. “Just a routine recon mission, sir. Nothing to see or remember seeing here.”

  “I understand Master Sergeant. Sorry for intruding.” Josh said and quickly walked to the other end of the hangar where his commander was waving him over.

  A few weeks later, Josh was called to the base commander's office. His commander had no idea why. Entering the office he reported and the general stood. “Josh, this gentleman is in charge of the mission you volunteered for. I will inform my staff to provide any assistance you need. I’m going to take my lunch now.” Josh stood in shock as the General walked past him and out of his own office shutting the door behind him.

  “So, you’re the dragon rider?” a voice asked. Josh turned back from the door he had watched the General walk out of and there was a man standing in modified camo fatigues with no rank, name, or unit insignia. How did I not see him? He’s doing something with essence. Seems to be sealing us inside a bubble of some sort.

  “Yes sir.

  “Would you like to volunteer for an impossible mission that is probably going to end in your death?”

  “Not really sir.”

  “Wise man. Welcome aboard the team. I’m Colonel Stevens and from this point forward the only thing you are allowed to say is that we are doing a long range reconnaissance mission mapping the changes to our planets. We are leaving in 10, come with me. I’ve got gear for you already loaded.”

  “Are the satellites not working, sir?”

  The colonel smiled, “You flyboys are supposed to be the smart ones. Make up a story about checking anomalies or some krap like that if somebody questions you. I’ll fill you in on the details once we get in the air.”

  *****

  Xeno felt quite satisfied with his progress over the last few weeks. He had quite a stash of natural treasures that the system had seeded on the planet as well as a nice stash of loot in his dimensional storage that he had received from various beasts he had hunted. He had relearned many of the skills and spells he felt would be useful and began leveling them. Since leaving Josh, he had flown a looping course heading generally north. Now, he had a decision to make.

  He stood at the edge of a low level area and was watching a small town that appeared to be unlucky enough to be placed by itself in the middle of nowhere, separated from the other natives of the planet. To make things worse, the area seemed to have a large population of four legged carnivorous mammals. The town had begun building wooden fortifications around various buildings, but the smell of blood in the air told him they had taken losses.

  Deciding it wasn’t really that hard of a decision to make, Xeno took to the air. Flying low he picked off some of the creatures he saw. Soon the mammals recognized a greater predator had moved into the area. Circling the town he ignored a few spells cast in his direction as he raised walls around the town.

  Once the primitive wall was finished, he burned the brush and trees down, giving the town a clear field of fire for 200 meters from the walls. He then landed in a small clearing in the center of the town and killed a small group of the mammals that had tried to hide in some trees. He then walked towards a group of humans he sensed in a building across the road.

  Sensing a child that had nearly lost its leg to a bite, he immediately healed it. “Bring me your wounded. I can heal them” He called, but no one approached him. Frustrated he began walking around the streets healing the wounded he could sense hidden in the buildings.

  As he walked, he noticed the town had rather ingenious devices that collected light essence and turned it into electrical essence providing power to the homes. He also noticed the town drew its water from a basin underneath the town. Hmmm. Food and protection will probably be their greatest needs. They have probably been getting meat in drops from the beasts, but humans are omnivores. I think that is a problem I can solve as well as getting them up to speed with some skills.

  Stopping at a point where the wall crossed a major road that ended only a few meters outside of the wall, he pulled out some steel he had smelted during his travels and began to heat it up and form a gate. He also formed a pulley system, some cables, and a pulley system to raise and lower it. Once done, he removed a section of the wall and created a gate house and installed the gate. Carefully testing the gate he estimated that two humans should be able to operate the crank to raise the gate.

  Turning back towards the town, he said, “You’ll want to test that you can raise the gate on your own before I leave.” He then followed the wall around town creating stairways up to a walkway on top and adding battlements and towers as he went.

  When he returned to where he had installed the gate, he walled in another section with a lower wall and began churning the soil. He planted a natural treasure in the center of the field and planted some fruit trees and a variety of seeds he had gathered or received as loot that he was planning to use to barter if necessary. Using his nature affinity he accelerated the growth of the plants.

  Once the plants and trees were nearly matured, he returned to the gate he had made and left a few copies of the manuals he had brought with him. “My name is Xeno. I will stay in the area for a few days if you would like some help getting your spells and skills trained or just general advice on the system. I can also heal your wounded if any remain.”

  After flying to the edge of the clearing he had made, Xeno built a small fortification for himself and began forging some weapons, armor, and tools he thought the town could use.