There were two seemingly identical rocks in the distance. Rift then gets close to one of the rocks and knocks on one of them. A hole appears from the rock and someone looks through it. Rift waved at the eyes and the hole closes. The space between the two rocks then suddenly roses, revealing a large mouth of a den. "Rift, it's been a while." The man who looked through the hole greeted. He had rough black hair with a beard, wearing some worn out armor. "You know how it's hard to get here, don't blame me, Duke." Rift said, while they perform a secret handshake. "I brought someone with me, you'll love him." Rift then walks by him. Duke then turned as he heard the earth rumbling. Duke the turned to the rumbling sound and couldn't believe his eyes.
Ground Slimes are commonly found in the Badbands, they have the ability to move the ground randomly...unless a summoner could command them to manipulate the ground to make large things to move.
Jacko is then seen lying down the corpse of a Sandworm, 4 Ground Slimes carrying the Sandworm below him. To Duke, this looked like an attack. "WHAT THE FUCK RIFT!?" He yelled. "No, no...wait for it." Rift told with a big grin.
Jacko then stopped the Ground Slimes, then he hopped down the corpse, unsummoning them through absorbing them. "Whoaaa! This den is pretty cool!" Jacko says. "Rift, who the fuck is that." Duke asked, concerned and terrified. "Jacko, Come here." Rift wrapped his arm around Duke and makes him face the approaching Jacko. "I'm Jacko, I'm a Slime Summoner Sir." Jacko said politely as he was told. "The fuck is a slime summoner?" Duke asked. "Exactly. And he's coming in here, bringing a whole Sandworm! Duke, get the damn smithies already! We got a gold mine with us!" Rift laughed.
A silver haired lady and a grey haired man came by to study the corpse, reviewing the quality of the material. "There's some armor ripped off, amazing...death by blunt force. Who did you say killed it again?" The grey haired asked. "Jacko right here! He's calls himself the Slime Summoner!" Rift says as he taps Jacko' shoulder. "We got good news and bad news." The silver haired lady began. "The quality isn't bad, but there are so many damn cracks on the Sandworm. It's gonna be difficult to take some actually usable material here, but overall this will only sell for 60 thousand gold." She said. Jacko smiled. "That doesn't sound bar, Miss." Jacko says. "You sure you ain't making it cheap for yourselves?" Rift says, stepping into the corpse to check. "Yeah, if you look here, that's cracks...leading over there." The grey haired pointed at the part where the Sandworm was hit and all the way to half it's body, showing the cracks. "Just checking, just checking." Rift says. The silver haired woman walked to Jacko. "If you want, we could make you some stuff with it, make it easier for us to buy it, we aren't as rich as we are back then." The female smith told. "I understand, I'd like to commission an armor and sword for Rift then, Miss Lenya." Jacko says respectfully. "Wait what?" Rift overheard. "You got yourself a nice ally, Rift,don't you dare abuse his kindness. It's rarer than Sandworms nowadays." The grey haired smith said. "Well I didn't tell him to do anything, Ahand!" Rift said, then looked at Jacko smiling at him. "But you right, that dude's a real one." Rift told, with his hand at his head, confused yet grateful. In total, Lenya gave Jacko 30 thousand gold for the corpse and the commission.
The two finally went into the Rust Den, its a very dull place with sand and wood everywhere, there are torches on hard to reach places, while most torches are extinguished. There's huts made out of sand and some don't even have hutd at all, like the smithy. Even in the world of thieves, even tho the smithy is the least guarded place, they are to be respected,along with the food providers.Lenya and Ahand had been a good team even outside of Badbands. They can even get out of here if they want, they chose to live here because they were treated here better than other places in their experience.
Jacko's stomach growled, as he then eats his final breadstick. "There's a bakery down here, there's also a butcher that can cook, but he sells meat very expensively, I don't blame him, it's hard to come across meat here. Then again, the baker's a real asshole too." Rift groaned. Jacko nodded, he's met some assholes before.
The baker is seen expertly taking out the freshly baked bread and places it on the cabinets of many layers. He is a tall black man with black hair wearing a smithy's apron. He had burnt scars all over his arms, hinting that he's a self taught baker. He turned to the counter, seeing a lime haired man and a cloaked thief with a mask. "Rift, is this a new guy?" The baker asked. "He's Jacko. He's gonna buy us some bread, Berney." Rift said. "150 Gold for each." Berney told. "150!?" Jacko exclaimed, they usually went for 25 Gold each at the tavern. "How much you getting?" Berney asked. Rift looked at Jacko. "Dude, it's totally your choice, but I want to suggest a choice..for 10." Rift said, he is understandably hungry. Jacko thought for a bit. He knows there were people like Rift, and thanks to his experiences in the tavern he nods his head. "I'd like to buy 8, I wanna save money for better stuff." Jacko says to Berney. "Wanna take drinks?" Berney asked, while showing off his Water Orb powered wand. "No thank you." Jacko said, as Berney handed them the bag of bread. "Right..." Rift scratched his head, embarrassed.
"If people sell huts here, why can't anyone make their own here?" Jacko asked. "Noone owns anything here, except the smiths and the food makers. They go to the person who made these huts, then they rent it per month. It's tough but it is what it is." Rift said. "Who owns the huts then?" Jacko asked while eating some bread. "Duke of course, wait hold up." Rift stopped Jacko, as he approached a certain hut. He immediately staggered. "She's back!?" He exclaimed. "Who's back?" Jacko followed him anyway despite being stopped. Rift pointed his finger at an emblem, it's of a tree with two flowers wrapped around it. "I don't get it." Jacko says. "You were with the Forest Squad and you don't know their emblem?" Rift said. "They didn't tell me anything about that.Mr. Vines always worked as a Tavernkeep, while Miss Petal worked as a Nurse." Jacko told. "Wow, anyway. This, so ask youself, why's this here?" Rift asked. "They must have been here before?" Jacko said. "That's reasonable, but they don't just leave this emblem unless they want-" Rift then heard a lard bang from inside the hut. A wooden machine then whirs from within and a wooden hammer is suddenly launched right at Rift's head. "Agh-" Rift says, as he fell down unconscious.
"Get outta here!" A lady's voice yelled, as she peaks out to see Jacko unhit, for he was shorter. "Sorry, sorry!" Jacko then turned to try waking up Rift.
"Wait a damn minute, you're wearin' her belt!" The lady then yelled at Jacko. He turned at the lady and sees where she was pointing. "This?" Jacko asked. "That's Penny's belt!" The lady said once more, thinking and grumbling on how a weak looking child could have possibly have her belt. "Miss Petal gave it to me." Jacko said. The lady then squinted her eyes. "You don't look like their kid...hell, I don't think those two fucks would even have a kid. Who are you to them!?" The lady yelled. "I'm... someone they raised." Jacko says. "Can you help me wake Rift up? I know you're mad but he's a good person, most of the time." Jacko asked, hoping she would help because of the shifted tone in her voice. The lady opened the door. "Come in, leave him there." The lady says. "But-" Jacko wanted to reason once more. "Shut it." She says as she pulls him through the hut and closes it behind him.
The lady then presented some wooden machines in her hut, there were some disassembled, it looks like she recently just returned. She presses a button and pulls a lever in one of her machines and a wooden hand then grabs Rift from outside and throws him in the floor. "Tsk, hate that guy." She says, as she then presses a pressure plate on the wooden floor, making two wooden chairs and a table rise up in the middle of the hut. She sat down. "Sit and tell me who you are, green boy." She says, while Jacko obeys.
"I'm Jacko, a Slime Summoner." Jacko began.
The lady blinked, her hair is red, with bandages on her cheek. Her wear is a white shirt and rough pants. "A what?" She asked.
"A slime summoner, that's what they say I should call myself." Jacko told.
"If you know Petal, then you know Vines. Honey town...How long were ya there, kid?" The lady just completely ignores the last answer, not going to even regard it because it sounds too stupid.
"8 years, Mr. Vines found me in Slime Grove when I was 10." Jacko told.
"What? Then where were you from?" The lady gave a confused look. "I don't really remember. May I also ask questions, ma'am?" Jacko said.
"My name is Sarah Stem, your friend is ok, I was friends with your parents before but not now. Does that answer all your questions?" Sarah said.
Jacko was about to ask her name, then stayed quiet. "Oh...right, yes ma'am." Jacko stammered.
"Now stop bullshitting me and tell me who you really are, the fuck you mean by Slime Summoner!? You think I'll believe your shit? What did you do... you're clearly dressing like a mage too, are you Magekeeps too!?" Sarah slowly climbed over the table, making Jacko shrink in fear of her ranting face.
"F-finn..." Jacko said, then a pink fairy slime appeared by his side. "Hi!" Finn places it's hands on its hip and scolded the red haired giant. "The fuck?" Sarah saw the Fairy and notices it's slimy texture immediately. "What the actual fuck is this shit?" She grabs the fairy itself and starts touching everything in it's body and stretching it. "HIIHOOOOOOIIIIIII!" Finn wasn't screaming in pain, this was his way of warning Jacko that this lady is nuts.
"Hey! Don't do that to Finn!" Jacko says. "That's a slime...a fairy slime that looks like an actual fairy." She says as she throws back Finn to Jacko, landing him on Jacko's forehead. Jacko unsummons him by putting Finnin his chest, so he will no longer suffer.
Sarah laughs to herself. "I see, I see why now... They had to deal with you? Now I know why they sent you out!" Sarah laughed. "Actually, Honey Town got attacked by Magekeeps...and now I'm going to Greyhold to ask for help." Jack said. Sarah just stared at him with a large grin, laughing. "ARE YOU SERIOUS? YOU THINK GREYHOLD IS GONNA HELP YOU!?" She laughed. "What are you gonna do? Summon some bullshit slimes and show off!?" Sarah laughed harder. Jacko then squirmed, now that he thought about it, how was he even gonna do that in the first place? And why did Petal let him go like that?
Sarah then stopped laughing after a while. "Oh god, poor kid too!" Sarah said. "If you let me investigate your body for the night, I'll let you stay here for the night along with this dumbass." Sarah then told. "In... investigate my body?" Jacko grew worried. "I won't cut you up, I need to know what makes you this way...Hahahaha!" Sarah said. "No thank you, we have money to buy rent." Jacko says as Sarah grew dangerously near him. "I wasn't offering." Sarah then activated her wooden machines. Jacko whimpered.
Two Magekeeps mages are standing over the dead body they found of a fellow Magekeeps mages in the sand. They take away the corpse's wand and their eyes glowed.
"The Slime One, we found him once again."
"They're in the hole of the survivors."
"Fools, they dare bother to hide from fate."
The two Magekeeps then make their way to the Dust Den...