Prologue

One of the most well-known series of bedtime stories told to children from across the land involves a pecuilar village known as Mystic Mana. The folklore contains many stories of all sorts of creatures with different feats, shapes, and sizes. These creatures aren't like normal races, like orcs or halflings, but are more atypical. These entities are as if a very young child imagined them, take, for instance, a scary looking monster who's actually a gentle giant, a strange palm tree that's actually a bird, or a tall red man with a lanky build. The village was predominantly composed of a magical essence, an essence in which embraces a youth's creativity and heart. The stories commonly go over the usual life lessons and always had a good ending with every character learning something positive about themselves. The stories' setting is mistakingly believed as fictional, which isn't the case. Mystic Mana is a real village with strange creatures located deep in an unknown humid forest, away from most populated areas. The folklore is heavily exaggerated, and the village isn't as heartfelt as the stories led on. But it is still an interesting and unique place. Here's the actual story of a former inhabitant of Mystic Mana, one of the famous "characters" in the orginal folklore, with the name of Blooregard Q. Kazoo in the tale. That name is actually not correct, due to the old nature of the stories, the name changed as it was told from generation to generation. The real name is Blooregard X. Magnus.


Mishaps

"Now flip over to the next section titled, How to Maintain Your Spellbook," Instructed by the man-sized rabbit in front of the assembly of students.

"Now look closely at the paragraph on the top of the page, it reads, Always keep your spellbook in a proper, safe, and secure place when not in use. Careless placement of your spellbook could lead to dangerous mishaps for yourself and others…"

The blue slime groaned and grimaced in the back of the brick classroom, showing immense boredom during the lecture he stopped tuning into long ago. This stops when a hushed voice to the left of him whispers,

"I think you should pay attention to this, Bloo. This might show up in the test at the end of the semester, man," The ten feet tall red entity told the slime.

"Hmph, I already know all of this stuff anyway, Wilt. I know everything about being a wizard before I even stepped through the door on the first day. I'm a slimefolk, I'm made for magic!" Bloo said as he folded an old parchment into a dart.

Wilt rolled his only good eye and replied, "Yeah, yeah, I know your family taught you how to do magic n' stuff. But you should still at least look like you care. Mr. Herriman does a lot for us."

"Ha, I know enough to even teach him a thing or two." Bloo joked as he began to aim the dart.

"Said by the 'wizard' who always almost kills himself when casting Acid Splash," the huge purple monster to the right of Bloo teased, giggling.

"Oh hush, Ed. You couldn't even defeat a tiny goblin a few months ago because he looked 'too freaky,' He was literally like two feet tall."

"You didn't have to go there, I was just 'messing' with you. Was that the word for it?" Eduardo pondered.

Wilt shook his head in disappointment, "You guys are like little kids sometimes…"

Bloo nudged off the jab at him and shot the paper dart into a spider web located in a dusty corner of the classroom. The dart pierced through the intricate design, tearing a good portion of it apart, but some strands were still held together. Bloo's amusement went straight back to boredom as the class paced on. After a few minutes of Mr. Herriman's lecture, Wilt hushly spoke to Bloo and Eduardo again,

"After class is over, you fellas wanna go find that chest that Billy was talking about the other day? After we go get Coco from her Bard classes of course."

"Why not, it could have something co-" Bloo was saying until he was abruptly interrupted by Eduardo,

"Didn't Billy say that it was in some dark tunnel outside the village? What if it has someone in it, spiders, or even worse, witches! That's no bueno!"

Bloo rolled his eyes, "As I was saying, it could have something cool in it, like gold or banned spells or something. As long as you have me, you guys have nothing to worry about, so we should go get it."

"Sounds like you're in, Bloo. You don't have to come if you don't want to, Ed," Wilt reassured.

"I'll go, maybe it won't be too bad..." Eduardo confirmed with an obvious worry in his voice.

"I call first peek at the loot!" Bloo exclaimed.

"As you always do..." Wilt said while turning his attention back to the front of the classroom.

Minutes began to feel like hours for Bloo. Sitting in the chair made out of oak with the aged stone desk in front of him made the immature slime nearly insane. Words from Mr. Herriman transformed into nondescript gibberish. The objects he held up to show the class were just irregular shapes. Bloo was begging for him to finally say,

"Class dismissed."

Bloo's attention shot up. "Finally! Oh my god, today felt longer than the other days!" Bloo said while getting up quickly and heading towards the door. With his friends behind him.

"Remember to study in volume four of the spellcasting textbook over the weekend! There's an exam next week!" Mr. Herriman reminded the students as they left.

While the trio were walking outside the Spellcasting Academy, away from the building's yard, and towards the Bard Academy about northwest of it, Bloo began repeating the plan as he slid over the grass. "Okay, cool chest in a tunnel, outside village grounds, blah, blah, cool stuff, y'all ready?"

"Yep!" Eduardo said proudly, obviously faked.

"Don't get too cocky, Bloo. We might have a difficult quest facing us, hopefully the loot's worth it," Wilt said.

The gang stopped in front of a large, lush, and shadowy tree, purposely planted in the courtyard of the bard academia. The tree had many people under it, mostly young women practicing their music with a variety of instruments. The entire area was engulfed in amateur melodies, displaying their youthful and inexperienced status in full force. A distinct palm tree but birdlike creature was amongst the crowd, playing a tranquil song with a silver-plated flute. The bird happened to be one of the few who knew a good melody. After the song was over, her attention shifted to the trio when Wilt greeted her.

"Hey, Coco!" Wilt said as he smiled and approached, with Bloo and Eduardo following after him.

"Cocococococo!" Coco said happily.

"We're glad that you finally got that song down, it's beautiful! Bloo, Ed, and I were going on a quest to find a chest outside the village. Wanna join?"

"Cocococo, cocococococo?" The beaked palm tree questioned, seemingly unsure of joining.

"Billy told me about it, and-"

"Come on, come on! We don't have time to waste! Are you in or not, Coco?" Bloo interrupted.

"Stop rushing her, that's rude!" Eduardo scolded.

"Shut up, Ed! While we're sitting here talking, someone else might be-"

"Cocococo!" Coco said suddenly, agreeing to the quest and hushing Bloo.

"Looks like you're in, let's pack up our gear! Let's try to get this done before it gets too dark," Wilt ordered.

The group traveled towards the south side of the village, as the evening sun subtly beamed through their path. There it's easiest to slip out without getting reprimanded by the elders and guards, due to most of them living and working in the northern portion, the area closest to the patrolled gateway. The four sneakily stepped into an alleyway between two empty merchant posts. Darkness and old garbage were heavily present in the alley, with flies dominating the area. The party approached the tall and mossy stone wall that emcompasses and protects Mystic Mana. A pile of old dirt was conveniently stacked up against the wall, with obvious footprints leading towards and up the pile and over the fence. This area was likely a common spot for delinquents to sneak out.

Wilt threw his old and rusted longsword over the wall, with his leather pack following soon after. He swiftly hopped the barrier, his towering figure made the process trivial. A few moments passed, then from behind the wall, the others heard Wilt call out, "It's clear, y'all can come on over."

"Right behind ya!" Bloo said as he scaled up the wall without much effort, a simple feat for slimefolk. He slid on down by Wilt on the other side. Coco struggled for a second while trying to get over, but managed fine after a moment, gliding down with her wings. The last to cross was Eduardo, he was on top of the dirt pile, staring down at the three on the other side, clearly a bit nervous about the height.

"Ugh, come on already, it's not even a ten foot drop! There's also vines to help you climb down, for god's sake," Bloo mocked as Edurado flinched at the height.

"I know, I know! It's just, kinda high…"

"You're gonna be just fine, Ed. Just be careful when you drop!" Wilt encouraged.

"Cocococo!" Coco also motivated Eduardo.

"Alright, I'm coming down now…" Eduardo took a deep breath and carefully slipped over the top of the wall, hanging off the other side. "Por favor no lastimes," Eduardo whispered to himself as he let go. The ground shook a bit when he landed on his feet. He opened his eyes to realize he's perfectly fine. He was elated.

"Told ya' Eduardo, now come on," Wilt said while reclaiming his weapon and backpack. "We have to cut through the forest about east of here, so be ready for anything."

"I wonder if the forest has some foes to fight. I'm ready to kick some ass!" Bloo smiled, flaunting his believed strength. He started to quickly pace towards the forest, disregarding the direction previously stated.

"Hey! Hey! Bloo! It's not that way!" Wilt shouted.

"I'll meet up with y'all later! I'm off to find that tunnel first!" Bloo paced faster into the dark trees of the humid forest, eventually leaving the sight of the other three.

"He's gonna get himself killed if he goes alone like that, we gotta follow him!" Eduardo said as he chased after Bloo.

"Coco!" Coco began following after Eduardo.

Wilt rubbed his eyes in frustration and groaned, "Damn, if only that blue fool would listen for once…"

Wilt equipped his longsword and began running after his friends, into the mysterious forest that encompasses the village. Unsure on what to expect, or what dangers could be lurking.

Meanwhile, in the deeper parts of the forest.

Grass crushing and branches breaking where the only sounds Bloo could hear while running. He had a dagger in hand to cut through any bushes in the way, the only thing on his mind was a good fight and treasure. The evening sun was fading into a dark blue, with little to no beams of light streaking through the trees anymore. This didn't worry Bloo, not one bit. After some traveling, he found himself at the edge of a clearing. The moon was shining on a giant stone right in the middle of it, with slight foliage laid upon it. Bloo inspected the area closer, sensing something off about the area. Dismissing the feeling, he braced himself up against the stone, checking through his belt pouch and backpack. A light crossbow, unloaded, with a few arrows by it, some rations, about ten pieces of gold, a bedroll, a tinderbox, and some rope. Good enough for now, Bloo thought.

Suddenly, the stone began to shake violently, along with the ground beneath it. The sudden movement scared Bloo, causing him to fall back into the grass. The stone started rising off the ground, with dark appenages poking out under the rock. Bloo noticed one, two, three, four…No, eight legs were present. A giant arachnid revealed itself, finally pushing the stone out of the way to reveal a large pit deep within the earth. The spider crawled out, each movement making an unsettling sound of multiple legs moving at once. It appeared to not notice the slime at first. Bloo smiled, ready to take down the large beast, he equipped and loaded his light crossbow. Aiming at the spider's abdomen, he shot, and barely missed, the arrow whizzing past and landing right into the ground by the beastly spider. The sound of the arrow firing gave away Bloo, the huge spider turned towards him and pounced, slipping it's fangs into the slime's body swiftly. The fangs didn't damage him, due to how piercing objects just slip right through Bloo. While stuck in the spider's underbelly, he yelled out, "Eat this!" and casted a Fire Bolt right at the spider's eyes. The spell was successful, causing the spider to recoil off Bloo, unable to begin injecting venom into him.

The spider's vision was weakened, but it could still see it's prey. The spider got into position to pounce again, causing Bloo to dash to the right, readying his crossbow. The spider instead charged right into the slime, headbutting it. The fake out took Bloo from surprise, the impact slamming him away into the edge of the clearing, dropping his crossbow.

Something caught his momentum however, something sticky was all over the back of his body. Bloo tilted his eyes around the area to the sides of him, noticing that he was caught in a huge spider web between two trees.

"No! Damn it!" He yelled out while thrashing about, trying to free himself from the web. The arachnid approached his trapped prey and began spinning more silk around Bloo, binding him down further. Before long, Bloo was completely encompassed in thick silk, with only his face showing. The last thing Bloo remembered before blacking out were sharp fangs entering his body once more, shooting liquid into the defeated slime.