We sat down in the warm shade of Ygga, it was getting a little chilly, but nothing I couldn't handle.
How cold does it get during the night? I wondered.
"Do you spend nights in the Forest," I asked Dragan, not letting a moment slip. He was still moving the firewood around.
"Sometimes, but most days I return home to my village, my house is in the highest part of its mountains," he said moving around the firewood.
He was placing it in such a manner so the fire would burn in a controlled manner. He knew his stuff. He used rocks and other nonflammable's to make a circle around it.
He then put his hand up to the lower part, where the dead leaves and small branches lay.
"Fuegin!" he exclaimed, then in a small soft voice he said, almost like he didn't want me to hear.
"Twelfth movement," much to my surprise. From his hand, a small fire materialized.
Then he used it to combust and start a fire below the wood. He then gave the fire wind with a medium size leaf.
"Was that magic?!" I finally exclaimed, I could feel my body changing to represent a more human-like emotion.
Ah, did I do that on purpose?
He responded with a hearty laugh.
"Have you never seen magic little one?" he inquired. Dragan kept calling me that, *little one*, not that I minded though. I was much smaller than him.
"This is my first time, EVER!" I exclaimed.
"That's weird, slimes have a very high inclining towards magic,"
"Well, I don't know how to cast," I said crossing my fingers and pretending to be mad in a sassy way. He laughed it off.
"I can teach you some, but my class affinity is 'Warrior' so there's - only - so much I can teach you. Grand - I mean - The Elders, know much more about it than I do," he said with a wry smile.
The Elder huh?
"Are they in your Village?"
"Yep, they hold power over who comes in and out of the Forest, my job is to train and draft anyone interested in walking this forest," he explained.
I felt like the main character in an RPG, and this was the moment a bunch of lore gets dumped on you. My favorite part of video games was always the story and exploration.
So exciting!
"But there hasn't been an application in years, so I just tend to the fields whenever I can, I make my rounds through the forest every fortnight or so."
"You must have to deal with a lot of monsters if you do that huh?" I asked, the question came naturally I didn't think anything of it. But the way he looked at me, made me think my cover was blown.
"You must not know then,"
Eh! Know what!? Exactly…
"Yggdra keeps all of those who are not of pure heart out of its territory,"
Eeeeeeeh?! What exactly does that mean? Am I a monster too? What the hell, I hadn't thought about that. I was still playing by human rules.
"So there must be something special about you - if Yggdra lets you stay so close to him,"
"Right… I guess, huh." that might have been a close one!
"Thank you so much Sir Yggdra!" I said a little worried.
On cue, the tree dropped one of those green orbs right in front of me, this time it had a gold color. It hit my temple and disappeared. A warm welcoming feeling fell over me, like I was taking a hot shower.
"See?! Yggdra likes you," said Dragan smiling, even with his eyes.
I have to say, the Red Golden Boy that was sitting in front of me was quite cute. I might be already developing feelings, but that happened with every straight guy I ever met in my last life, so I have to be careful.
And he was just my type!
He finally stopped fiddling with the fire.
"So, little one, where did you come from, as the shield of this forest, you have to tell me,"
I can't tell him I remember dying and coming here from another life, he wouldn't believe me!
"Are you by any chance a reincarnated spirit of Zomearon?" he asked so casually.
What!? Can he read my thoughts, is he telepathic?!
"Who's Zomearon?" I asked
"He was a very powerful Caster from 100 years ago - before he died, he cast a powerful spell that would bring spirits from other worlds and reincarnate them here in Cronus, as anything they wanted."
"At first, we experienced a great calamity because spirits kept reincarnating as what we called Seraphs. And would bring disaster upon this world. In the first year, 5 heroic spirits came together and formed the 101 Accord. A contract that would only let women reincarnate as spirits of Zomearon,"
Talk about the back story.
"Why only women?"
"Men tend to choose violence first after death, it seems women only want to spend their first reincarnation in peace. After the one-year war, barriers and other safety measures were placed around this forest, like the mantle that runs through the sky."
Huh? Mantle? I looked at the sky.
I didn't notice it before, but now that he mentions it, there was sort of a magical blanket or force-field, that ran through the forest, it extended like a bubble through the sky and when I looked back at my memory it was also there.
"Just noticing it now?!" he said with a proud smile. "It's part of its effect, you won't notice it unless you know about it."
"Our Village has been running the machines needed to produce the bubble,"
Machines?!
"How do they work, do they use some sort of special power," I asked.
"Yep," his gaze softened.
"Magicule particles have to be cast'ed every day to keep the machines running, we've made it sort of a ritual now, the elders take charge in that department though," he said almost whimsical.
"The particles then get scattered with the wind and end up in the crop soil or maybe they touch someone and heal a wound they've been carrying, it's an all-powerful spell," he said
What! This was crazy! Any more information and I my brain might be on overload.
Only women huh?
It does seem pretty possible that I got reincarnated as a spirit of Zomearon, but I had to make sure.
"So where do spirits reincarnate inside the Forest?" I questioned.
"In the temple of Zomearon, of course."
Gulp! I got a little anxious.
This explains why all the other slimes screamed at me when I showed my face. They were all women, and I'm the only guy! And wait - am I wearing any clothes? What about my human -
Before I could finish that thought, my body acted on its own, it squashed and stretched and in an instant, I was no longer a slime, but a human being. My skin changed color to what I had in my previous life.
Just a white dude.
Although my height was different. I was much smaller - probably somewhere around 5'5 (170).
Dragan seemed surprised, but at the same time, he smiled. I swear for the first time I was noticing he had sharp fangs that made him look all the more mischievous.
This was bad.
Dragan's eyes dropped - he noticed I was a dude. I covered myself up with the biggest leaf I could find.
"You're one of them, aren't you? You're the first male spirit of Zomearon to have reincarnated in 100 years," he glared at me, the shadows of Yggdra hit just right to hide his face, although his yellow eyes shined glaringly at me through it.
"Male slimes have a darker shade of blue on their skin, while females get an almost orange tint, and the fact you can turn into a human, this proves it, there's no denying it," this was a big moment for him. It just made me anxious. Was he showing his true colors?
I looked down at my body, I was completely naked.
The embarrassment made me turn back into slime, the same way as before.
I sighed in relief.
"Look - I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, I wasn't even sure myself, okay?" His face softened, back to normal. "No one told me any of this before reincarnating!" I finally shouted.
Did I just - I shouldn't have blurted that out!
Again another hearty laugh. My cheeks tinted red.
"I wasn't trying to scare you, I'm sorry, however, if anyone else found out, this could mean they would riot and call for your execution."
Eh, what kind of barbaric!?
I was getting the sense Cronus was modernized, but no such luck I guess.
"So, is there any way I can solve this?" I said my voice almost trembling.
"There is," he said calmly. I pushed forward and flew right in front of his face.
"So! Tell me, tell me what is!" I demanded he pushed his neck back, I realized that I had got way too close.
"Sorry," I pushed away.
There was a long pause, but then he extended his hand and said.
"You'll have to make a contract with me."