Chapter 13: CH13 Charm is Evil

Lucky for him, the first wave was just one monster. While Alex was on the floor his phone rang out:

[Congratulations wave 1 complete. Reward earned]

A slot opened from the floor and a dumb waiter brought up a medium sized copper box that slid out in front of Alex. The dumb waiter made some more mechanical sounds as it went back down and the floor slid back shut. He looked at what was in front of him curiously. He grabbed the box and said with a shaking voice, "I need a break. I'm going to head back to the adventurer's guild and try to work through this trauma." He turned to leave when an idea came to his mind.

"Oh right!" Alex said out loud to himself. The doll on its tower but had continued its attack against the sirine. She had saved him. He held the small clockwork doll that minutes ago he considered a throwaway prototype. He held it with reverence like it was a great treasure. His emotions were a mess. He sniffed and said, "You are the best doll. I didn't even give you hair or a proper outfit but you protected me. Thank you." He bowed his head to the little doll.

[You have unlocked the feat: Empower Doll. +1 to all of a doll's primary attributes for 15 minutes, cooldown 1 day]

Alex walked away from the table and back to the sewing station. He did what he should have done before and started cutting cloth for a new outfit for the doll. He would have to make a dress from scratch using only the materials in this workshop. He knew now that making something from fabric was extremely difficult because dolls were so small. He could do some research on doll fashion by reading one of the books present. Maybe if he made something cute enough then the next time the doll battled it might be better than before. A part of him knew that a cute outfit would make no difference to how this clockwork doll could shoot arrows but another part of him knew this world was a world of magic. Fufi's constant stressing of the importance of cuteness also weighed on his thoughts.

The book he chose to read about was called "Doll Clothes" and covered every aspect of dressing and accessorizing such tiny beings as they moved through their everyday lives. Alex figured the advice and tips from the book would probably not be useful but maybe it'd help understand the craftsmanship behind it. As Alex continued reading, he was reminded that it took more effort to create clothes for dolls due to the small scale involved. The artistry required a completely different level of precision, accuracy, and care compared to a full sized human body. The way each stitch had to line up with an even smaller thread or yarn used on clothing was very delicate work indeed. While there were plenty of patterns available to work from, each design had to be rethought entirely. Even the material itself mattered: Cotton or silk? Each were great options and highly sought after within the doll fashion industry but both needed special handling when stitching into their seams.

After spending three hours reading the entire book, Alex still felt like he barely scratched the surface of what could go wrong and what he could learn from the book. He decided to start simple. His first attempt was a black sleeveless dress. He had to use some tiny tools and a magnifying glass to see the work. He thought he had it right but when he tried to put it on the prototype doll it accidently would catch on the gears of the torso when it moved back and forth and up and down. The second try was also a failure. It was too tight and tore some of the fabric when testing the range of motion. The third try was a success. After he verified that the dress wouldn't be a hindrance he went about adding a bit of flourish. He put a ribbon around the neckline and tied it into a tiny bow. He added some frills around the bottom of the dress to make it look a bit more elegant. He stood back and admired his work. That was when his phone rang out.

[Skill acquired: tailoring]

He touched the skill on his phone and read the description.

Tailoring - Level 1: You've gained basic knowledge in sewing and creating outfits.

Tailoring Skill: Your ability to create new clothes is now limited by your skill with this craft. With this craft you can create any garment from simple garments all the way to an outfit of ceremonial attire.

Alex sighed and said aloud to no one, "I know I wanted to avoid getting this skill but somehow now that I have it, it just feels right. Fufi is going to be so smug when she finds out."

After finishing up the doll dress, Alex wanted to take a break. The memory of being affected by the charm status was still fresh. It felt like he had a memory of himself being replaced by a different person. It was frankly terrifying. He did not want another battle like that again ever. As a newbie shouldn't this dungeon be easy? Or was this easy and his definition of easy was much different than the world's easy. If it were true then what kind of trials awaited him in the real world?

Alex headed towards the adventurer's guild after cleaning everything off the crafting table. He returned through the portal with the now-cutely-dressed doll in one hand and the copper treasure box in the other. When he entered the lobby he saw Fufi there talking to Merumeru behind the stone counter of the adventurer's guild. There was a stone display against the wall that had some pictures of pipes and mushrooms etched on it. The slime girl had a ceramic plate of various kinds of mushrooms on it. She grabbed one and plopped it into her mouth. Next, she just stood there a few seconds with a look of intense concentration on her face. The mushroom dissolved in her slime body but nothing else happened. Merumeru looks disappointed. Also, the adventurer's guild didn't have a counter before. The ground floor was different than he remembered.

"Oh hello Alex," Fufi said as soon as she noticed him coming up the stairs from the basement. "Did you see any adventurers?" She asked Merumeru. The slime girl shook her head. "I guess we'll just have to wait or do the quests on the job board ourselves." She told the slime girl matter of factly.

"What are you two doing?" Alex asked.

Fufi started explaining their current predicament to Alex. "Well, Merumeru and I were playing adventurer's guild. See that is the current quest board." Fufi pointed to the board that was just etching of pipes and mushrooms. "No one has accepted any quests though."

Alex looked at the board with a sigh. What they were doing was kinda sweet but not exactly how he expected a quest board to look at an adventurer's guild. Though if Merumeru made it then that might make sense. She was only a week old and likely couldn't read. Though maybe that wasn't so bad. It was just play if she wanted to be an adventurer when she grew up than good for her. The slime girl popped a new mushroom into her mouth and thoughtfully chewed away on her food. She again waited for something to happen but when nothing did she frowned. 'She is acting weird today,' Alex thought to himself.

"What are you holding Alex?" Fufi asked.

"I found this in the dungeon." Alex handed over the doll along with the copper treasure box.

"I see you made her some cute clothes. How did it go? Also what treasure did you get?" Fufi asked, pointing towards the little clockwork doll.

Alex started telling his story of his battle against the sirine, and of being charmed by her. That last part was hard to tell. The painful memory was still fresh. He could barely talk about it without breaking down. Yet he felt like he needed to try to explain everything that had happened to him. When he came to the part about the tailoring skill and the empower doll feat Fufi just listened quietly. He was thankful the flamingo didn't take the opportunity to get a quick quip in because of his stubbornness before. After he finished talking she just stared at Alex to process everything he said. After a few moments passed she looked at Alex with a curious expression on her face. "Are you ok?" She asked after thinking it over for a while. "You don't seem alright." She paused to consider things more carefully. "No really! You look different somehow."

"I am fine." Alex lied through his teeth. Fufi didn't seem convinced but let it slide. Instead, she focused on Merumeru. The slime girl hadn't taken much interest in anything other than eating mushrooms since they talked to Alex earlier and kept glancing back and forth between Alex and Fufi.

"Meru!" She asked and pointed to the copper treasure box.

The slime girl quickly crawled across the desk and reached out her hand. Her eyes grew wide when her fingers brushed against the box's smooth surface. Then she brought her fingertips closer to inspect her new find closely. As soon as her slimy fingers touched it she pulled it away with a start. The moment of fright seemed to have cleared up some of her confusion though, as she tried once again to touch the box again with curiosity. This time she managed it better. She lifted its lid open so she could see inside. She looked inside and gestured for Alex and Fufi to look also. Inside there was a big pile of parts. Tiny gears and springs of various sizes were all about. It included a set of small tools and some glue. There were several doll sized limbs and tiny tufts of hair in sorted packets. Alex recognized what the treasure was. It was a repair kit for dolls, a complete one at that!

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"We found something very important here," Alex said with excitement.

"That is good news indeed." Fufi agreed wholeheartedly.

Merumeru looked at the box for a long time before finally closing it and returning it to Alex's hands. She had been staring intently at it ever since it had opened but now she had returned her attention to her mushroom plate like nothing had happened. "We should keep this in the basement until we need to use it I suppose. I can't use the workshop in the dungeon forever," Alex told the two of them. He placed the copper treasure chest down in the basement with the rest of the stuff. They were starting to get quite the pile of random things down there.

"Would you like to play adventurer's guild with us Alex? Your new friend can join the guild," Fufi gestured to the clockwork doll that had saved him, "Does she want to sign up to be in the guild?"

The slime girl took notice of Fufi calling the doll her 'new' friend and quickly turned her head around to stare directly at her. After thinking it over for a moment she started nodding up and down and squeaking quietly to herself. Her eyes were focused on Fufi as if waiting for something. As soon as Fufi noticed this she looked at Merumeru curiously and tilted her head as if trying to understand what the slime was doing. "I think Merumeru wants to form an adventuring party with this little one. What is your name?" She looked at the doll who didn't respond. Then Fufi looked at Alex. Apparently that was the signal for him to name the doll.

"Her name is Lily." Alex said aloud, hoping that would make it official.

Fufi smiled and nodded, though it wasn't a nod of understanding or approval, just a confirmation of the fact they now had a member in their adventuring party named Lily. Fufi continued playing the role of someone working the counter of an adventuring guild. She asked questions like how long the members have known each other, why they want to adventure together, any past experiences they might have, and so forth. "So, what will be the official name of this adventuring party?" Fufi asked. "I'll need to know this before I can create the record entry," Fufi explained as she pretended to write things down.

"The party has no official name yet." Alex told her honestly.

"That just won't do." Fufi crossed her wings. "We must give a name to the team in order to enter it into the guild's records!"

Alex paused for a few seconds to think about a good name. He tried some ideas but none of them seemed appropriate for a slime girl's party. He could go with something based on the dungeon, maybe 'Lily and friends,' or something more original he thought. When nothing came to mind after a couple minutes of thinking Fufi cleared her throat loudly and started poking him on the shoulder repeatedly with her beak. This made him flinch and caused him to look up from where he was staring on the floor. Seeing his lack of effort Fufi huffed impatiently as if to tell him that wasn't going to cut it. The slime girl moved closer to Alex and began trying to pull on his sleeve with one of her hands. Alex knew what she wanted, but all the names he came up with didn't seem that great. Still, there were a lot of factors that played into a good name: the characters' personalities, what their skills are, what their weapons look like, and their relationship with each other... There had to be something that would fit!

"Well..." Alex said quietly under his breath. It just hit him like a lightning bolt in the head. He snapped his fingers and turned around to face Fufi who looked at him quizzically. "How about calling this party the Lilypad?" He asked them both while smiling. They blinked back at him in surprise. "It's not perfect," Alex continued, "but I think it's better than Lily's Slimes." That last part sounded kinda dirty when said out loud but it sure as hell beat naming a party some of his worse ideas.

Fufi raised an eyebrow and gave Merumeru another curious glance before turning her gaze on Alex again. She slowly tilted her head from side to side and then let a slow smile grow on her face. Her eyes became wide and sparkled with joy before they twinkled with mischief. "Okay, it is official, Merumeru and Lily are members of the new adventuring party named Lilypad." Fufi finished making up the official entry into the guild records with flourish and excitement, Fufi was really good at pretending apparently. The slime stared up at the flamingo like she was insane. Lily was as stoic as ever. It would be weird if a clockwork doll that could only move when on a mount designed for it did anything else other than sit still.

"So which quest does your team want to accept for their first mission?" Fufi asked Merumeru and Lily.

The slime girl looked to Lily and said, "Me ruru ru Meru." After giving Lily a second to respond she looked to Fufi and pointed at the board, "Meru meru me."

"Oh so you want to do the pipe quest. I think that is a good choice it is up by the river at the dam." Fufi replied while nodding sagely.

Merumeru gently grabbed Lily and they headed towards the exit. Alex played along and the group went to the dam. The repairs were almost done. When they got there, Merumeru set Lily on a rock where she had a good view of the place. Merumeru jumped into the water and got to work creating blocks to finish up the last part of the dam.

Alex was sitting with Fufi by the river. After a while she spoke softly, "So, do you want to talk about it?"

Alex sighed deeply before he answered her, "I suppose I should. I've gotten over the initial shock. Charm doesn't exist in my world like it does it. Such a thing shouldn't be possible. But having experienced what it is like I can't deny it." He paused for a moment and thought hard. His mind raced through all kinds of scenarios but nothing really made sense. Eventually Alex continued, "Torture is one of the worst things that can happen to someone. They will say anything or do anything to get the torture to stop. However, I imagine a torture victim doesn't loose themselves. Being charmed, it was like Alex just was gone replaced by a different person. Even though it was a short time I remember what it was like how they felt. It is like my sense of self has been shaken to the core."

"That must have been awful," Fufi said quietly. She seemed sincere when she said it too.

"Yes it was," Alex said, lowering his head.

Fufi looked down at the ground and shifted uncomfortably. After several moments she lifted her head up again and stared into space. The flamingo did this kind of thing from time to time and Alex never could figure out why. "I was hoping that you'd never have to feel what it was like to be charmed. However, considering that the demon queen has so many succubus minions I understand now that was just wishful thinking." Fufi shook her head a few times as if trying to clear it of thoughts.

"I suppose coming to this world was never going to be easy. The sooner I can accept that the better, maybe the dungeon is trying to teach me not to be reckless." Alex mused.

There wasn't much more conversation between them after that. They watched Merumeru finish the last section of dam repair and then the water level started to rise upstream of the dam. It took a while but the water started flowing through the pipes that Merumeru had put all along the dam. The little slime girl tried them all out several times like they were some sort of water slide. She seemed delighted that all of her work made such a fun little playground completely fitting for a slime.

Lilypad's first mission was a success. After they went back to the adventurer's guild, Fufi pretended to stamp a non-existent paper as complete and handed over some mushrooms she had collected along the way as payment. "Good job Lilypad, here is your reward."

 

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