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[Name: Jack Der Quiver]
[Species: Sanquilisme Slime (Blood-Healing-Weapon)]
[Level: 7 -> 8]
[Slime Cannibalism Commited: 0 -> 3]
[Skills: Slime Throw Level 1 -> 2, Blood Forging Level 1, Heal Mucus Level 1, Slime Pact Level 1, Slime Tentacle (New) Level 1 -> 2, Moonlight Infusion (New) Level 1]
[Magic Weapons absorbed: Silver Moonlight Dagger]
[Titles: Husband of Jeanne D'Amain]
[HP: 50 ]
[Mana: 50]
[Stamina: 25 ]
[Strength: 25 -> 28]
[Intelligence: 30]
[Handholding Points: 100 -> 1100]
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The pain came fast as if someone had hit Jack in his nuts. A bolt jolting squeek erupted.
[HP: 40/50]
Jeanne wiped the blue slime that had popped onto her hand. With a smile, she turned around to Leena, ignoring the whimpers of her husband.
"See married?" Jeanne's smirk was one of pure spiteful triumph directed not at Leena, but at Jack, who was reforming the crushed tentacle with a pathetic little shudder.
"My precious tentacle..." he whisered.
The lawyer's mouth was hanging open, she tried to speak but couldn't form any words. Her gaze flickered between the grimacing slime and the smug priestess. Her legal mind was struggling to file this particular scenario under any established precedent.
She turned to Aria.
"I am at a loss for words," the lawyer admitted. Her fingers fidgeted with the quill. Her professional armor had cracked, revealing the overwhelmed young woman beneath.
Shrugging, Aria simply said, "Love is complicated."
After Jack had regained his composure, he made sure to glare at Jeanne. But he didn't push it further. He didn't want to waste any more precious tentacles on her. The rest of the "interview" was rather short. The advocate started asking questions about Aria's origin story and why the church was after her.
Her kingdom of Olyria was purified and she had been on the run for a few years before being captured by the a group of slavers. The moment Leena heard the mention of Olyria she stopped asking questions and wrote in her little black book.
The Olyrian kingdom. Jack knew nothing of that place or how it was 'purified'. The system just said.
[Vampire kingdom located next to the dwarven kingdom of Kaz Modan.]
Leena closed her book and stood up.
"Okay I think I almost have everything we need for our first court hearing. But I do recommend Ms Voss here hides her more... aggresive tendencies." Leena said, her eyes pointedly staring at Aria's sharp nails which tapped on the wood.
Reaching for his cage, Jack thought Leena was going to free him, to let him out of this humiliating circumstance. But no she just picked him up.
"Before I present anything I need to make sure your marriage is... official." She said to both of them. "But since it's not an Elven marriage, it needs to be appraised by a runesmith."
Jeanne smile faltered, she whispered, "Did I touch his hand for nothing?"
The slime laughed, earning him another stink eye from his 'wife'.
As Leena carried him through the house to an exit door, the sweet smell of trees filled Jack's non existent lungs.
"Unfortunately Urianthe does not have a lot of Arch Runesmiths so we'll have to settle for a regular Runesmith. Her testimony might be a little less reliable." Leena said quietly, her gaze distant. She adjusted her grip on the branch cage containing Jack.
"She is a bit of an eccentric." She paused, the door in front of them made of wood creaked open. "Please, don't mind her odd... proclivities."
They stepped onto a suspended walkway of woven wood, stretching from one colossal tree to another, hundreds of feet above the forest floor. The city of Urianthe was a symphony of arboreal architecture. Buildings of all sizes were carved into the trunks of ancient trees, bridges of living wood spanned dizzying gaps between branches, and soft, golden light emanated from mosses and fungi that carpeted the platforms.
Elves walked gracefully below, their movements as fluid as the rustling leaves. Leena's walkway led to a small, isolated workshop nestled within the fork of a massive oak.
"We're here," she said.
A few seconds after knocking, a woman with hair the color of oranges and grass green skin opened the door. A few blue flowers bloomed across her hair.
"Hi Solana..." Leena said with a nervous smile.
Solana's eyes, the color of spring moss, widened as she saw Jack's cage. She immediately grabbed it from Leena, pulling it into her room, which was also her workshop with a squeal of delight. Her movements were not fluid like an elf's but twitchy, chaotic, full of a manic energy.
"You're the best granddaughter one could ask for! I was just in need of new rune ingredients and a blood slime would be perfect!"
Before Jack could process anything he was hanging over a boiling pot. His ass was being sizzled.
His thoughts froze. There was absolutely no way he was being treated like a hard boiled egg.
Jeanne glanced at Aria. Jeanne was waiting for Aria to do something. The hybrid let out a chuckle.
"I don't mind tasting a boiled Bobo."
Thankfully, Leena rushed forward, her face pale.
"Solana! He's not an ingredient! He's a client! Stop!"
She was grabbing at the woman's orange-hair, trying to pull her away from the pot.
"Ow ow ow." Solana let go of the cage but Jack was still dangling dangerously over the steaming cauldron.
"You can't boil my first client Solana," she said before pulling Jack from the cauldron.
Jack breathed a sigh of relief. Turns out even being boiled can cause his HP to go down.
[HP: 30/50]
His life as a potential rune ingredient was not on his bingo card for today. He looked around. The workshop was a chaos of wonders. Bunches of glowing herbs hung from rafters like chandeliers.
"Wait," he said
There were cages filled with other monsters: from spiders to pixies. Jack shuddered at the sight of a small green imp with bulging eyes sobbing in a corner.
He managed to catch the spider looking at him.
[Ivy Spider: Known for it's extremely itchy web. Rare]
[Level: 2]
It was so adorable with its many blue and red striped legs.
"Poor thing."
Then he saw Solana rummage through a pile of mismatched scrolls, muttering under her breath. She paid no attention to Leena's frantic pleas or Jack's narrow escape.
"Talking Slime... Talking Slime."
She was practically throwing all of her previous research ideas on the ground, some even went into the cauldron. The spider hissed as it was getting sprayed with hot liquids.
Finding what she was looking for, she jumped up in joy.
It was an old scroll. She unrolled it and laid it out on her workbench, which was a slab of gnarled, still-living wood.
Jack tilted his head. This woman was the prime example of the beauty-crazy scale. She was as crazy as she was beautiful.
"Slime Evolution Rune!" she said.