'What do I tell him? I should ask him what he wants, I think. This would be easier if I had ever had a boyfriend before!' In the roughly two decades she was alive, she had never had a date. This was her first romantic encounter. "Iris, let's talk."
She used earth magic to create walls around a cave wall. "Am I going to die here? We are closed off from the outside after all." The room was several dozen square meters with a sitting ledge in the corner. Filia casted a light ball into the air for them to see and sat down. "No, come sit. I want to know how you see me."
"I see with my eyes... I'm sorry. I think of you as a friend." She stared at him, "I'm serious. That confession didn't seem like came from a friend." Iris looked down in embarrassment. "I do see you as a friend! But, I also feel more. I knows it's selfish, but." Filia sighed, "It's not selfish. We can't help what we feel in our hearts. My question is: are you willing to be a... couple?" She mumbled the end. "If we were, could we still be the same?"
Filia looked him dead in the eyes, "No, but I wouldn't let our friendship be destroyed. It won't be the same no matter what we do though. So, choose." Iris stared at the wall for several minutes. He contemplated what he truly wanted. He wondered if he just had a crush, or if he held more in his heart.
"I want to be in a relationship. Will you let us see what will happen?" He smiled wearily. "Yes, but the dungeon takes priority; I don't like someone forcing me to do something. We can see about going on dates after the dungeon. can you wait a week?" Iris chuckled, "Of course I can wait a month longer." Filia removed the walls and light and returned to packing up her equipment.
Marcus and Amary asked them what happened, but all they got was "Wait for a week." After a couple of hours they were finished. Eidus complained, "Are you going so soon? Please come and visit. Nera is very lonely." Nera raised a nonexistent eyebrow, "I'm the lonely one, really? You are the one asking for them to visit." Oknos also said his farewells, "Bye, everyone, can't wait to see your babieszzz" He fell back asleep. The, now two-ish, couples left blushing as Eidus and Nera still argued.
They are now on floor three of five. This floor is twice as difficult as the previous or four times as difficult as the first. They had to start being serious with this one. The floor was a dense forest, covered in deciduous¹ trees with only the occasional coniferous² tree. The floor's weather was seasonal, but was spring for half of the year. Marcus looked around nervously, "How do I use fire in a forest this dense?" The others could adapt easily, but his attack magic was almost entirely fire based. Amary suggested "Use your sword. Your healing magic may be useful now too." Marcus relented and pulled our his sword.
After walking for a couple of minutes they encountered a slime. Filia remembered something from Earth, 'Weren't slimes commonly depicted as perverse on Earth? Please be normal, please be normal, please be normal...' She prayed in her head that it wasn't something gross.
The slime was cyan and around a half meter in diameter. Marcus sat by a tree and watched. Physical attacks weren't very effective. "You know, It's kind of cute. Hey, Iris can you use hex magic and make it a pet?" Filia stared at the slime for a while. "My magic is used to curse a being to death. Why would I... fine, whatever." He gave up, because otherwise she would just find some other way to capture it.
Iris held out his hand. A purple-black circle appeared in front of his palm. The circle had a smaller circle with archaic writing in between. The inner circle had a Dodecagon³ symbolizing the twelfth magic, hex. The final and most unknown magic. It is almost impossible to learn without that specific affinity, unlike the other magic groups which are at least achievable. Life and hex magic aren't necessarily opposite, but because is often used to kill someone people are wary of it.
The spell shifted from his palm and wrapped around the center of the slime. "There it's done. I need to give the control to you now." Filia shook her head, "No, I want to give my system the slime body. He's been whining so much about it."
Everyone said a collective "What?"
-----‐---------------------------------‐---------------------------------‐---------------------------------‐------------------
>What?
>How could you, I want a humanoid body! A slime doesn't even have any limbs; it's like an amoeba⁴!
'Either that or nothing. Now, get in.'
>Fine have his bind it to the bracelet, You have enough mana to get me to bind to the slime.
-----‐---------------------------------‐---------------------------------‐---------------------------------‐------------------
The three were still staring at her. "Just bind it to the bracelet and it should work." Iris nodded and waved his hand over the bracelet. The gem started glowing and her mana shot down to near zero. "How does this cost one million!", She screamed. The spell in the slime slowly dissolved and the gem returned to normal.
The slime moved a bit and then a voice spoke, "Hello? Well this is... odd. I'm Filia's system. I don't have a name yet, so call me Slime." They had all used their own gems to 'text' with him, but had never actually talked before. Filia started laughing, "You sound like a 10-year old."
Slime was angry and started jiggling causing everyone to laugh, "Stop it, and I am ten. I was only activated that many years ago." Filia suddenly stopped laughing. "I was being constantly made fun of by a ten-year old." Filia felt like crying and the three had tears in their eyes.
After several minutes they calmed down. Slime explained "I am level 20 right now, but my stats are kind of low. My defense and intelligence stats are good though. I can cast a few simple spells I guess." Saying this Slime created a candle-size flame above his head. Putting it out he said, "I can level up by consuming Filia's mana. The spells are also linked to her, so the higher level she is the more powerful I am." Filia glared at him, "So, you didn't even gain much and you need to use my energy as well. I don't see a reason for you to keep your body."
Slime started panicking, "Wait, I can uh... I know! I can use a a spacial skill and be a personal inventory! I can" "sounds good to me. here take this. Make use of that million MP." Filia and everyone else gave their stuff to their new donkey. Slime mentally complained, 'Why can't I have a system with cheat skills. At least I got a body, maybe I can evolve it to be humanoid. I have a new goal: pet Mavros the god cat! I don't really have any other goals... maybe I should find some hobbies?'
1. Deciduous is a tree with leaves that fall during the autumn, come from Latin and means fall
2. coniferous is a tree with needles and cones to spread seeds, and does not shed during the winter
3. Dodecagon or Duodecagon is a 2 dimensional shape with 12 sides
4. Amoeba is a type of cell that moves by extending itself.