Quest Failed: Chapter Two - Dev Log #22

Hi there, guys!

So--earlier on in September I held a short poll to gauge interest in what people might be interested in reading about next for a future dev log!

And going back over things, it seems that the overwhelming majority of you are interested in a more in-depth write-up regarding the world of Quest Failed.

Naturally this opens up a lot of avenues for where to go with a write-up; monster girl species, the land itself, history regarding things, etc. If you have a specific preference for what you would like to see in these kinds of extensive dev logs, please don't hesitate to make your voice known in the comments, since I'm always happy to write about what you guys might specifically want to know! I figured for this dev log that we could go back a ways and put the spotlight on the species that young Matt first encounters--namely a species that's slimy, jiggly and something of an iconic creature when it comes to monster girls.

Yes, we'll be talking about slime girls today! Though, to call them slime 'girls' wouldn't quite be correct, as they don't actually have a gender at all. Their entire sticky being--beyond their core--is composed of a thick, gelatinous substance that seems to constantly ooze and stream down their otherwise empty form. As one might be able to see if they were to take a glimpse into the translucent body of any given slime girl, they would find...not much of anything--nothing to suggest a gender one way or the other.

Even the human-like form they most commonly take on and use to interact with others is but a facade they've built for themselves. Deep down, the slime's 'true' self is embedded away within its core which essentially serves as its brain. This core controls every aspect of the slime surrounding it, allowing it to move and shape itself at will, emulating the properties of a human body (muscle movement, voice emulation, nerves, etc.) to create a somewhat believable imitation--though with obvious limitations.

This means they can shape and reform themselves at will, able to take on a number of different forms and adjust aspects of themselves (height, bust size, etc.) on a whim. However, once most slime girls have settled on a body, they tend to stick with it, developing something of an emotional attachment to that form; associating their identity with it, truly wishing to be recognised as the form they've made for themselves and not the formless core that lurks underneath. Essentially, they all want a sense of individuality.

With slow, mushy bodies and generally meek demeanors to approaching anyone that looks remotely intimidating, the combat potential of slime girls is next to non-existent, with most preferring to avoid direct confrontation at all if it can be helped. If monsters were to be categorised into 'levels' to denote raw combat potential and say, dragons were at the higher end of this spectrum and considered 'high level', slime girls would be at the bottom of this scale and commonly be considered 'low level'--deemed a threat that even the most inexperienced adventurer could slay with ease...in most cases, anyway.

A big part of why slimes take on the forms of 'girls' is to compensate for their lack of combat prowess, with most born with the innate instinct of knowing that human males are more likely to lower their guard if confronted by a beautiful woman than a formless mass of slime. More often than not, this allows a slime girl to pacify a human male in a manner that won't hurt them--too much--then proceed to simulate the act of sex, coaxing as much seed as they can from any given human that might have fallen prey to them. After the deed is done, most slimes will then proceed to let the human go, however traumatized the poor man might be after such an experience.

Because, to reiterate, most slime girls have no malicious bone in their body--or any bones at all--they have no desire to hurt the human, they simply do what their monstrous instincts command of them to survive. And this involves copious consumption of human seed on a regular basis, of which the slime absorbs and uses to replenish its ever flowing slime. If a slime girl were to find themselves deprived of seed and unable to find a source of it, their slimy form would shrink smaller, and smaller, potentially becoming a fatal situation for the slime if all the fluid surrounding the core were to dry up and expose itself to the elements. Its for this reason they take up rather drastic measures to ensure their survival.

While the very essence of life itself--human seed--gives the biggest boost in nourishment, if pushed to their limits, slimes may seek other sources of nourishment that are slightly less potent. Blood, for example, could serve to stave off their impending doom until they were able to locate a proper source.

And as blood is quite readily available in more than just human males (females, animals, etc.) this broadens their scope quite a bit. But a slime girl would have to be very desperate to even consider such a hostile, violent act. Most would even choose to perish than to take a life for their own selfish needs.

But...it's not unheard of. And once a slime girl has tasted blood, it has the very dangerous possibility of warping their once docile, friendly nature into something far more twisted. Something almost...feral, if far gone enough. There are also rumours of slimes that survive through magic augmentation in place of natural nourishment, but nobody has seen such a thing to be able to officially document it.

Slime girls are social creatures and tend to stick together in close-knit communities dotted all around the world, taking all kinds of shapes, forms and even colours depending on the region they're local to. There's no central, unified home for the slimes however, nor any one true leader, as they're far too scattered for any kind of true unification. (As had been made sure by the human/monster war many years ago) Though, there is one thing that most slime communities have in common, and that's the fact they keep close to populated areas that they know are abundant with human life so that they're comforted with the knowledge that nourishment is never that far away.

Given that slimes have no defined gender, they propagate themselves in a rather unusual manner, in that once they've accumulated vast amounts of human seed within their slimy, they're able to put this excess essence to use and effectively split themselves in two, even so much as duplicating the core to create another slime.

Depending on the amount of essence gathered, and the slime girl's own wishes, this can lead to a number of different results instead of simply duplicating themselves. In a lot of cases, to create an exact replica of themselves right down to the same personality is an impossible feat given that their very core is splitting into two. Meaning that their memories, personalities and traits will have to divide--so the original slime will retain some of their traits, while the new copy will inherit the other half, developing these in different manners to the point where the new slime may as well have a completely new mind.

In other cases, a slime girl may use a small amount of essence to and split off just a small part of their core to create something more akin to a newborn child, given just a tiny core to develop on their own, inheriting very little from the 'parent', ensuring that the original slime retains all of its self.

Each method has its own advantages of course, with the more extreme personality splitting method ensuring a fully developed slime right from the get-go, while the other method requires the slime to develop in time.

So, to sum things up, slime girls are generally considered a low threat in the grand scheme of things and more often than not are seen as a nuisance rather than something to be feared, only really a threat to the most inexperienced of the inexperienced. They simply do what they must for survival's sake and tend to shy from forming any kind of meaningful relationships with the humans they milk dry. At least...in most cases. Many do desire friendship, but understand that humans will very rarely want to converse with them after the acts that will have more than likely occurred.

Though it's very rare for them to idealise the human world--at least as much as a certain lead slime does, anyway!

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Whew--that got a bit lengthier than I intended! I hope it was a fun read though and if people enjoy it I can always do more of this sort of thing as it's always really fun to put down my thoughts/notes on things into more long form blog posts like this!

Until next time~