Season 4: Ch2: Report

  From her office space, Antoinate Berus narrowed her eyes, her gaze fixed on the courtyard below where a monster in the form of a priestess held a rubber duck close to her chest.

  “Report,” Berus said, flicking her gaze to Donut.

  Donut clenched her jaw, the judicator reluctant to reply but ultimately standing tall and doing her duty.

  “Three of the inquistors we’ve sent into the dungeon have been confirmed dead by the priestess. Their heartstones have ceased reporting their lifesigns.”

  “And the other six?”

  Donut shook her head. “No traces milady. Shall I dispatch another inquisition team?”

  “No,” Berus said, gazing down at the scattering reports on her desk. “What of the Normus mountain range and Barbaroll’s castle?”

  “The demon lord’s castle has been confirmed destroyed. Inquisitors have reported multiple sightings of Gisnellia, Sharr, and Ludwig. Perhaps in response to the Normus disaster. Currently, our apothecaries and medicae have still made no headway on uncovering the poison that currently pollutes the land.”

  Berus frowned, her hands folded, eyes narrowing as she reviewed the movements of the demon royalty that lent credence to Hiro’s supposed clash with Barbaroll.

  There was just one problem.

  She didn’t believe Hiro. Call it intuition, a gut feeling, or a sense of foreboding, Berus couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being played. While one of the stipulations of allowing him to reside beneath her home was that she was able to visit and inspect as she pleased, she knew that what she saw with her eyes didn’t paint the whole picture.

  The Queen Slime the duck kept was proof of that. So too were the goblins infused with holy magic.

  With a sigh, the noblewoman closed her eyes. Dealing with demons and traditionalists were one thing, fighting in the name of god on the frontline to save humanity was easy, but… dealing with a rubber duck with an army of monsters at its beck and call?

  A headache was forming.

  “Lady Berus?” The ever loyal Donut asked, “Are you feeling unwell?”

  “I am fine, your concern is appreciated. Now, tell me, what of the other members of Lhikan’s party.”

  Donut frowned, “Simone and Jesse have… ehem.”

  “What is it?” Berus raised a brow.

  “The pair seemed to have eloped. They are currently residing in a log cabin at the outskirts of Bienville.”

  “I see…” Berus said slowly, wondering if this was just a ploy or such, “And the gnome?”

  “Our guest has denied our attempts to visit the patient, however Lhikan assures me that she is alive and recovering.”

  “Tch,” Berus let out in annoyance. If they could inspect a victim of the fallout from Hiro’s alleged clash with Barberoll, maybe they could find a way to deal with the spreading poison.

  Just another thing she’d have to ask for in the next round of negotiations.

  She turned her gaze to Slimey in the courtyard, her mind racing at the possibilities of what the future could hold.

  ******

  “Ah… this is so nice,” Slimey said, my champion holding me close to her bosom as we toured the garden of the Berus estate.

  Lilacs, gooseberries, and archetypes of roses galore surrounded me, a dozen type of flowers that were no doubt expensive as I shared my senses with Slimey.

  Another day in the sun not marred by skies filled with smog all too common with the demon lands. A nice day, if one omitted the half dozen invisible figures watching me from every angle of the manor courtyard.

  Judging from the lack of noise, smell, and full invisibility, it was safe to say they were veteran assassins, strong inquisitors under Berus’s employ who had sicced them on me to keep tabs.

  Unfortunately for Berus, her assassins had failed to account for my signature skill, my squeakerlocation that revealed them fully to me, rendering their anonymity mute.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Still, I allowed them the comfort of their delusions, for it served my needs.

  Since arriving, there had been multiple infiltrators attempting to get to my dungeon heart, but, that had stopped quickly when the invisible scouts that stepped into my home were never seen again.

  At least to the surface world.

  It's quite fun when you have a slime that can mimic anything and enter any crevice.

  “What shall we do today milord?” Slimey asked, doing her utmost not to slaughter every hidden assassin as I let out a squeak.

  Good question. How goes Operation Hydra?

  The last holdouts of Petrov and Tynol have been cleaned, all of the leaders have been replaced and our anonymity remains secure.

  Hm. And Solhiem?

  Slimey hesitated, reluctant to reply but I could feel her greatest fear realized through our bond.

  Failure.

  Slimey. Report.

  Our attempt to convert the criminal element of Solhiem has met with stern resistance. The crime boss discovered one of my dopplagangers and eliminated my lieutenant.

  Oh?

  I let out a squeak. It wasn’t everyday that Slimey encountered a person that could see through her facade, let alone defeat her, albeit a weaker clone.

  Berus could probably defeat Slimey, and Lhikan could definitely give her a run for her money. But so far, there had been few threats to the slime except for Virgil’s bots that he had custom made to defeat her.

  Show me.

  In an instant I was seeing through Slimey’s “eyes”, my body and form, a shard of a greater whole as I slinked through the darkness towards my prey.

  I couldn't see, not in the natural sense, but I could feel and detect the world through the particles in the air, the water element in the air painting a picture to my pourius body.

  In an office, I waited, preparing a decapitation strike to leave the local gang leaderless.

  At least until I took over.

  Operation Hydra was a subtle but devious plan, a ploy to insert bits of Slimey across every human city, village, and town. Once embedded, Slimey would move to capture the sewer slimes, dominating them and adding them to her collection until sufficient mass was gained.

  Then she would move on the criminal underworld, eliminating the heads of each gang and replacing them one by one. Thanks to her holy attribute, her presence went largely undetected, even more, it allowed her to mimic being a human who, as a species, innately possessed holy attributes.

  The beauty of Operation Hydra. Cutting off heads and replacing them with our own.

  At least when it worked.

  Through Slimey's eyes I could see the target, a rough looking blonde man with stubble and unkept hair. He could be described as handsome were it not for the overwhelming sense of despair coming from the man.

  Odd. How was this guy a crime boss?

  Slimey moved, her amorphous form slinking across the rug like a snake in tall grass, her body nearing the kimono wearing figure and preparing to strike with hard spikes for…

  Wait. Kimono?

  Slimey struck, but as soon as she did the man shifted left, effortlessly dodging the attack and slashing down on Slimey with speed I couldn't register.

  In an instant the clone was dead, all four cores hidden in its body cleanly cut by seemingly one slash.

  A failure.

  More attempts were made, with Slimey even assuming the form of an underling only to be spotted immediately by the narrowed-eyed man and taken out.

  Narrow eyes…

  The more attempts I saw, the more I got to see of the man who resembled an easterner like me.

  Weird. Slimey what is his name?

  Jack Tillman. As far as my sources have told me, he is from the lower Lizeria region. Outside of his eyes and pattern of dress, there are no other indicators that he related to the Hero clan. I have attempted to capture him on several occasions however he has eliminated each of my clones, Slimey reported.

  Let's try a different tactic. Perhaps a face to face would do better. I sent, pondering the ramifications. If this Jack was a Hero clansman, I…

  A slight shift of excitement bubbled within, one that I quickly crushed.

  No. I couldn’t handle more disappointment right now. Especially after the debacle with the Lemodian lift.

  Siiiigh.

  Keep a close eye on him, as for the other gangs, is everything else in order? How is our revenue?

  So far, we have generated a sum total of twelve million in profits. We are still in the process of washing the money and laundering through local businesses and banks we own.

  Good. And our friends with the gifts?

  None the wiser. All agents have entered their respective destinations. All that remains is gathering more slimes to propagate your will my lord.

  Excellent.

  If I had a mouth, an evil grin would surely have been on display. But alas…

  Now on to sour news, as I opened my system screen, the interface still glitching out. While everything else was going to plan I was still encountering issues with my dungeon.

  While Berus was aware of my tunneling operations and allowed to visit, the scope and size of such was a far cry from what she could ever fathom. Currently, from what the noblewoman knew, my dungeon was merely one floor deep with a litany of tunnels and smaller rooms that hid my minions.

  But that was just the surface. The truth, was that my domain extended to at least a hundred feet down, the perks of having command of tunnel-digging monsters known as Capruxas at my command and a horde of monsters more than happy to work on scrapes.

  There was just one issue however, and that was the food.

  With my dungeon abilities restricted, creating farms and other rooms instantly was a no-go, which meant all of my dungeoning needed to be done the old-fashioned way. Growing, hunting, and pickling our own meals.

  Operation Hydra helped to offset the food deficiency with shipments of foodstuff from my various enterprises, but relying on that squarely possessed a risk in on itself. Most notably, discovery.

  Solutions were needed.

  Fortunately, I am very solution-oriented as I eyed my system that showed I was marked.