Merumeru proudly sported her plumber outfit on the day of her trip back to town. She boldly jumped into the darkness of the pipe that went straight down into the earth. A moment ter she popped up out of another pipe in a submerged basement. This pce was one of darkness and water. Unlike a creature with lungs, the slime girl didn't require air to function. Using her slime skills, Merumeru made her way like a snake swimming through water through a dark flooded basement into the rift gate without any trouble at all. She was in fact faster in water than on nd. A tiny blue hand on the onyx pilr split it apart to form the portal just like before. Merumeru swam inside and came out in yet another underwater biome.

  The underwater cavern oddly had good lighting. Several strange fish-like creatures swam back and forth in a completely predictable pattern. The hiss of bubbles that floated up from the ground made an odd sound. Stationary blocks and several coins in bubbles floated around in the water.

  Merumeru quickly grabbed the coins and they made a pa-ching noise then vanished. A counter in the corner of her vision increased for every coin she touched. Some weird fishes sat on the bottom of the seafloor who looked like they were snoring. She could tell they were snoring because their eyes were closed and the letter "Z" kept floating up from the fishs' mouths when they opened and closed.

  As Merumeru continued her journey, she encountered peculiar white creatures resembling squids. These creatures darted up and glided downward, sometimes at an angle, making them challenging to avoid. Unlike the earlier fish-like creatures, these mollusks had an unpredictable pattern. Although the slime girl recognized that this world harbored more dangerous creatures than usual, she felt confident due to her squishy body. However, she decided to py it safe and slipped past them.

  In the distance, Merumeru spotted a rge green pipe descending into the ground. Intrigued, she darted into the pipe. After a peculiar sound, she emerged on a small isnd with a hut. Shaking the water off, the slime girl eagerly skipped to the door and knocked. A peculiar man wearing a vest, poofy pants, and a toadstool on his head answered the door.

  "Hello, welcome to my establishment!" The man had a strange frog-like voice. "Are you here to py the slots? Three gold each turn"

  Inside the building was not much but a rge machine with an arm on it. There were some wheels with different parts of a picture on each of them. Not missing a beat, Merumeru nodded to the mushroom-hat man and jumped up, pulling the arm down. The arm was too high for her to reach from the ground but she was good at jumping. A strange cha-ching noise pyed across the room and the coin counter in the corner of Merumeru's vision went down by three.

  Toadstool-hat guy cheered her on with his croaky voice. The pictures spun rapidly. As they started to slow down Merumeru could see the image parts that could line up. To her excitement she noticed one of them was a mushroom. She really wanted to win the mushroom.

  The slot machine spun, then stopped, then chained back into pce, then finally cnked into position one part at a time. Sadly, the result was part of a mushroom, part of a flower, and part of a frog's legs. The machine made an angry beep and didn't dispense any prize. Merumeru felt disappointed that she didn't get anything and frowned at the machine.

  Toadstool-man quickly looked up and spoke with his strange frog voice, "Don't get discouraged if you try enough times you are sure to win at least once!"

  Merumeru didn't like to lose. She pulled the handle down again and saw more of her coins go away. This went on for some time and Merumeru never got her mushroom. All she got was some card of a frog suit and another with a strange gss and metal contraption that looked like it was shooting blue balls under the water with a spinny thing in the back that produced a lot of bubbles for some reason. It had a picture of a slime inside of it with hands on some levers and buttons.

  Loot Acquired: [Frog Suit card] and [Mini Submarine card]

  The slot machine wouldn't go anymore now that she didn't have enough coins.

  "MERU!" The slime girl kicked the contraption then gred at the shroom-guy.

  "Better luck next time," the man offered a sleazy smile.

  Merumeru stomped out of the hut and hopped back into the pipe.

  Merumeru decided to try out one of the cards. She threw it down like Alex had done to activate it, but underwater it was less dramatic. The card floated around before activating and vanishing. Suddenly, Merumeru found herself inside a strange contraption — a gss jar surrounded her from above and all sides, with a metal floor beneath her. In front of her was a peculiar device that resembled a clock. One side dispyed the word "Ahead" in rge letters, while the other side showed a rge "5." In the middle, four rge letters spelled out "Middle," indicating its current position. Each side had additional markings: one had four different letters, another had four letters, and a third had yet another four-letter word. Realizing she didn't understand any of the words, Merumeru decided to leave it alone for now. She would ask Fufi and Alex to teach her more letters and words ter.

  Behind the gss, Merumeru maniputed the knob adorned with letters, aligning it with the jumble of letters in the next position. A whirring sound emanated from the vessel's rear, and moments ter, the craft began to move forward.

  Clutching the peculiar knob in her hand, the slime girl experimented with its movements. She discovered that the vessel's direction corresponded to the direction she moved the stick. With newfound understanding, she pressed the prominent red button on the dashboard.

  A solitary, low-pitched "Pew" resonated from the vessel's front, followed by the unch of a small, blue projectile from a tube in the same location.

  In the depths of the water, Merumeru's tiny submarine glided smoothly. She pressed the red button repeatedly, chuckling as it emitted a series of "pew pew pew" sounds, unching pyful shots. Undeterred by any potential consequences, she turned the knob to the next setting, causing the vessel to speed through the water even faster. With a flick of the stick, Merumeru swerved around in circles, the force of the movement pushing her to the right side of the seat.

  "Meruuuuuu!" the slime girl suddenly screamed.

  Within the gss cockpit, the peculiar device began spinning at an arming rate, inducing a sickening sensation in Merumeru's stomach.

  As Merumeru abruptly released the control stick, the vessel's rotation ceased, and it returned to its central position autonomously. Startled, she blinked, realizing that she was on a collision course with one of the enigmatic squid-like creatures. In a frenzy, she repeatedly pressed the red button, causing numerous shots to be fired from the tube directly ahead. Though most of the shots missed, one finally struck the sea beast, causing it to emit a "plop" sound before inverting and plummeting downward. Unlike the previous dungeon, instead of halting at the bottom, it simply fell through the floor, disappearing from sight.

  Merumeru ughed triumphantly, finally deciphering the game's mechanics. Her submarine darted through the underwater dungeon, bsting monsters left and right. Before her, a submerged cavern loomed, guarded by a colossal sea monster. Larger than the submarine, it possessed a peculiar horse-like yet fish-like head with a tubur snout. Its body was adorned with rings of bone-like ptes, culminating in a curled tail. The creature pointed its mouth at Merumeru, emitting a 'bloop' sound. A red projectile shot forth, but Merumeru's swift reflexes allowed her to nimbly dodge it.

  During the sea monster battle, Merumeru made another pass, striking the creature with red projectiles while maneuvering the submarine up, down, left, and right. They exchanged fierce attacks, with the monster relentlessly firing back. After several passes, Merumeru finally defeated the sea monster, causing it to fsh with multicolored strobes before falling through the floor. She then sped through a cave and into a rge pipe, emerging in a vast bck backdrop. There, a spinning card hovered, transforming into various images as it rotated. Merumeru noticed a submarine card in her hand and secured it in her overall's pocket before leaping to grab the floating card.

  "Course cleared! You got a card!" The world said to her as a second card fell into her hands. This card was a weird looking hat with goggles on it. She stuck it in with the frog suid and submarine and hopped out of the dungeon through a portal at the other end of the area.

  [Css Plumber has level up!

  You are now a level 3 plumber

  New Ability: Pipe Nexus

  Description: Creates an extra-dimensional nexus where portal pipes connect to. Instead of portal pipes transporting one to a matched pair in another location they all connect to the nexus. From the nexus the plumber can choose the pipe they wish to travel to.]

  Merumeru's note dominated the dinner conversation. Everyone took their turn at trying to decipher it.

  She had acquired 3 cards. The frog suit likely helped with doing water things. The mini-sub was a vehicle for a single slime to travel and pew pew pew under water. It also had a key for winding it up like Alex’s carriage so it was simir to that card the magical girl had. Lastly, the hat and goggles, She summoned them but couldn’t figure out what they did. Hopefully the goggles did something. If they did nothing that would be a bummer.

  melchi