"Feel any different?" I asked once Vee finished consuming the golden apple.

"Like a million bucks! It's like I just drank ten energy drinks and a full pot of coffee all at once!" Vee said with bubbling enthusiasm.

"That does not sound healthy."

"On the contrary, I feel like I could go run a marathon and climb a mountain!" Vee replied. I couldn't help but notice her legs were jittering back and forth.

"Okay, just be careful, I guess."

"Roger, hopefully I won't crash down since it was a fruit. Well, a magic fruit, but the point still stands."

I made two tentacles just to make a shrugging gesture, causing Vee to have a fit of giggles while we proceeded to the next floor.

I wondered if every floor would be time-based, but the next floor proved that theory wrong. The goal of the floor was simply to "defeat the group of elite enemies."

Once again, it was the strange plantoids, but only five of them this time. Three were the size of an orc, while two were even bigger than that! It looked like they were farming a sort of ragtag party formation, so I expected them to put up more of a fight than the mindless invaders.

"Feel free to jump in and take one or two out, maybe burn up some of that excess energy," I offered to Vee.

"Great idea!" Vee agreed and immediately teleported onto the head of one of them.

The challenge hadn't even officially started yet, and Vee was already sinking her fangs into one while releasing a massive amount of threads. To my surprise, they weren't her [Rift Threads], but due to that, she could manipulate and control them on another level entirely, and she started whipping the razor-sharp threads around like a deadly garrote wire.

Uh… challenge begin!

Not wanting to be outdone, I dove into the fray myself, forming a vast array of weapons and monster parts at the ends of my tendrils while mixing half with [Cryo Slime] and the other half with [Blaze Slime].

Both proved especially deadly for the plant monsters, who couldn't handle extreme temperatures, although I noted that [Cryo Slime] performed moderately better.

I bet Dran has developed these monsters to have some fire resistance. That way, any random pyromancer can't just casually walk through his dungeon without any challenge.

Either through sheer luck on our part or bad luck on Dran's, the random monster Vee had chosen to land on turned out to be the healer. With the healer dealt with, it meant the rest of the fake party lacked any means of recovering themselves.

I restrained the two extra large plants, assuming at least one of them was the tank, while I focused my attack on the remaining two. Their caster flung countless roots to bind or hamper me, but as soon as they touched my flesh, they were melted or withered away from my deadly slime concoctions.

Before I knew it, both Vee and I had swiftly dealt with the group, and I had even gotten a level up in my troubles.

Racial Experience threshold reached. Chimeric Cluster Slime (Blue) is now LV 24.

13 Trait Points are now available.

Three floors and only one level… but they are pretty small fry. Here's hoping the next few floors have more to offer!

The fourth floor was a new "challenge," where we had to capture an enemy commander alive. It was a regal-looking planetoid with a full head of hair made of blue and orange flowers.

Unfortunately for Dran, I had regained a lot of my slime mass, and when the challenge started, I shifted into a "medium"-sized worm, barreled through the rank-and-file troops, and swallowed the VIP whole. Of course, I wasn't using any of my offensive slime traits, nor the snake's trait, even though it would have been highly appropriate.

Instead, I kept the target trapped inside me, encased in a thick layer of adamantine slime. It flailed wildly and attacked my inner walls with its weapon, releasing a poisonous cloud of spores, but none of it had any noticeable effect, so I ignored him until I finished killing the troops with Vee's help, and we "won."

Naturally, once we were completed with the stage, I had full permission to eat the VIP and was quite overjoyed with the amount of slime mass it generated.

Speaking of which, I had received quite a few [Plantoid] profiles since starting this dungeon. I kept glancing at them occasionally when it would update but had yet to find anything that was eye-catching.

Back in Kaerlin, I had eaten a plant horror, which could graft and mutate plants attached to it. In my opinion, that was a far superior representation of the plant monster species than these plantoids, which seemed more like plants trying to crudely imitate goblins, humans, and orcs.

The next floor involved killing a large group of treants, except each one had evolved its bark to mimic a specific material property. I couldn't help but compare it to [Metal Slime] and found it quite lacking, as the treants were stuck with their choice while I was free to adapt.

The two most noteworthy treants embodied fire and ice, respectively. The one looked like a piece of walking charcoal and could wield [Fire Magic]. When it intentionally set itself on fire, it actually empowered itself. In what felt like a blast from the past, the treant, while burning alive, could wield blue flames!

"Too bad for you unless you've got dragon fire. I think I'm perfectly safe," I taunted.

"Speak for yourself. I'm still highly flammable!" Vee cried out while she used [Warp] to dodge any incendiary projectiles. "Thank the gods. I didn't take that werewolf regeneration, or I'd be a charred stain on the floor by now!"

This story originates from NovelBin. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I had to agree with Vee; stacking weaknesses on yourself was never a good idea. I ordered my [Sub-Cores] to help protect her, and they started to defend against the encroaching flames with [Bubble] and [Ice Dome] spells.

I had already eaten a chunk of the "charcoal" treant, so I was more than happy to let it continue burning itself to death. Meanwhile, I focused my effort on the strange crystalline version that fired numerous [Icicle] spells at me while emanating [Glacial Aura].

Poor Vee was not having a happy time on this floor, so I endeavored to kill this one first, as the aura spell affected her while she was using [Phase Out]. I knew it needed to die, so I pulled out one of my semi-recent and favorite secret weapons—my exploding needles of [Nitro Slime].

While I couldn't detonate a giant slime worm, I still had enough to start some explosions. I tasked a few [Sub-Cores] that weren't on "protect the spider" duty to switch to production, and they rapidly started churning them out.

Using [Slime Shot], I fired a barrage of them into the crystalline treant, ensuring they were well distributed throughout its body. Then, with a maniacal giggle, I triggered their detonation.

Boom!

With coordinated precision, dozens of needles exploded simultaneously, ripping the entire icy treat into shreds and scattering it across the room.

"Oh no," Vee whispered, with what sounded like a hint of fear. "The explosions are back."

"Just small ones," I retorted. "For now…"

"That's what I'm afraid of. I don't want a repeat of the exploding worm!" she cried out.

"No… unless I get to eat another entire ant nest and worms, I don't think I can afford that," I replied somberly. "But, I should maybe consider experimenting with the spell orbs again."

"Oh no…" Vee muttered.

"Hey! I just realized that I got new magic to try putting inside them!" I joyfully exclaimed.

"No. Syl, no. Bad slime!" Vee reprimanded. "We can't have you exploding and creating rifts in reality. Remember the essence sludge? What if you make some dimensional

monster!?"

"Oh yeah, that could be pretty bad. What if I make something immune to your [Rift Threads]?"

"Exactly! No making bombs with [Dimensional Magic], promise?"

"Fine, fine, I promise…"

For now…

My mischievous thoughts were interrupted by a rather sorrowful request.

Please don't destroy my tree. I'll make sure there are more monsters on the upcoming floors. Please!

"See! Even the [Dungeon Master] doesn't want you messing with reality."

"Fine," I grumbled and took out my frustration on the smoldering remains of the charcoal treant.

I activated my own [Glacial Aura], followed by debuffing it with [Frigid] and finally throwing out an endless barrage of [Frostbite] infused [Icicle] spells.

The subsequent chain of spells happened in such precise succession that the flame of the tree went out. It hastily tried to conjure more flames, but as fast as it was channeling the magic, a thick layer of ice encroached over its entire body from each frozen projectile stabbed into it. I sped things up by firing a few sticky blobs of [Cryo Slime] at it, and it soon froze over and perished.

We moved on to the next floor, where we received another strange challenge. As we entered, we noticed a strange-looking plantoid wearing a little crown of golden flowers. I was about to attack it, as I thought it might've been some new elite monster when a sudden notification halted me.

Protect the king against the invaders for 15 minutes!

"Another protection mission?" I groaned.

Vee shuddered, "And it's the worst kind—an escort quest!"

I was about to ask Vee to clarify when the plantoid king provided a demonstration for me. A group of monsters had spawned, and the king casually strolled towards them as if he had no fear in the world.

"Is he trying to get himself killed!?" I yelled out in frustration.

I activated [Blink] to appear next to him and blocked the arrows fired by the hostile plantoids with a shield of slime.

"Just grab the bastard, turn into your worm thing, and eat him!" Vee yelled out in frustration.

I started withdrawing slime and reached out to lift him up with tendrils. As soon as I touched him, a blaring notification like a siren occurred, causing me to flinch and stop.

You may not touch the king! Release him within 10 seconds or fail the floor!

"This is literally the worst kind of escort quest!" Vee cursed.

"Well shit, if I can't touch him, then I'll just have to build a shifting wall around him!"

And that was precisely what I did. I started withdrawing copious amounts of slime, almost emptying my reserves, and began rapidly constructing a small fortress around the frolicking plantoid king. I kept the slime transparent, so the king could "see" through it and began mimicking his movements across the battlefield.

To my relief, no further notifications denounced my actions, so I knew we'd found a winning strategy to keep the stupid king alive. And so, while he wandered around the floor in blissful ignorance, I was crushing any invaders that got in my way.

It wasn't "difficult" per se, but it was certainly annoying. Having to pay close attention to the king and prevent him from touching my slime was causing me a unique form of mental tax. When the timer notification appeared, I breathed a blissful sigh of relief!

Time is up! The king is unharmed!

"Thank the gods," I muttered.

The king had ceased his scampering and was doing what looked like a strange dance.

"I'm going to eat him," I declared, letting my hostility be known.

"Please do. He honestly deserves it!" Vee fully agreed.

My slime walls began to enclose on him when another notification popped up.

For keeping the king unharmed, he is offering you a reward!

And the king reached inside of his chest, pushing aside roots and bark, and pulled out a platinum banana.

"Fruit!" Vee cried out with joy.

"Bleh. Fine, I guess the king gets to live." I grumbled and slimed my way over to a corner to sulk.

While Vee was taking the platinum banana, I began reading through my gains.

Racial Experience threshold reached. Chimeric Cluster Slime (Blue) is now LV 25.

14 Trait Points are now available.

Class Experience threshold reached. Elementalist is now LV 21.

15 Skill Points are now available.

Oh! I got a class level; I'd almost forgotten I had one of those after my experience distribution was changed.

Proficiency gained. [Companion Growth LV 7] improved to [Companion Growth LV 8].

"Wow. [Companion Growth] has really been shooting up the levels; it's now at the same level as [Companion Training]!" I informed Vee excitedly.

"Well, doesn't the latter only work if you're boosting one of my skills that's lower than yours?" Vee asked. "We're on par with [Dimension Magic] and [Corrosion Magic], so it's probably not getting any experience lately."

"And you've been slacking on your [Counter Magic] training ever since we moved to Caelthal," I pointed out.

"True…" Vee admitted.

"Well [Companion Growth] is far more important. The sooner we get that maxed out, the better."

"Shouldn't be too long at this rate. I'm assuming our maxed-out bond level is helping a ton?"

I nodded.

"Well, the next floor awaits! We're so close to the first boss, and I can't wait to see what it is after hearing about your fight against the Eyedra, demon cat, and scorpion lady."