Blue Raspberry walked into the tavern, looking around excitedly. They saw a man standing on top of a table, shouting to the crowd. Several people were whispering to each other or hiding a laugh.

"I am a researcher of oozes. I need someone to go into the forest and watch an ooze be born! Easy! Simple! You're great discovery will be recorded in history! You'll be famous, a true pioneer in the field! ...And I'll also pay you handsomely. Are there any volunteers? Anyone?" the man called out to the crowd, a pouch of coins in one hand and a book in the other.

Watch an ooze be born? Wait, Aren't I an ooze? Now I kind of wonder how I was born myself.... Maybe this would be a great learning experience! And they'd be a pioneer! Whatever that means, it must be cool. Blue thought to themself.

"I volunteer!" Blue called out, raising a hand into the air.

"Yes! Excellent!" the man called out, pointing a finger at Blue and climbing down from their table. The crowd made way for him, avoiding him. Several murmurs went through the crowd, wondering who this new freak was. They looked like a knight in their armor, but they had no weapons on them.

"Good sir, you will not regret this! We will have our names etched into history! What is your name?"

"It is Blue Raspberry" they replied, thumping a fist on their chest plate like they had seen someone else in armor do as they introduced themself.

"An excellent name! Blue- huh? Blue... Raspberry?" the man stopped their speech to do a double take at the knight before shrugging their shoulders and continuing. "Blue Raspberry! Are there any other volunteers for this quest?"

Javal Zarrias was currently at a Tavern drinking some water looking around for anything interesting. Javal always came to taverns not drink but to make new friends. Soon Javal saw what he was looking for suddenly a man entered the table and sat down setting his books down on a table and jumping up on it and began yelling. He yells, "I am a researcher of oozes. I need someone to go into the forest and watch an ooze be born! Easy! Simple! You're great discovery will be recorded in history! You'll be famous, a true pioneer in the field! ...And I'll also pay you handsomely. Are there any volunteers? Anyone?" the man called out to the crowd, a pouch of coins in one hand and a book in the other. Javal heard a intimidating armored warrior saw "I volunteer!" and raise his hand. Javal keeps listening attentively until the scientist says, "An excellent name! Blue- huh? Blue... Raspberry?" the man stopped their speech to do a double take at the knight before shrugging their shoulders and continuing. "Blue Raspberry! Are there any other volunteers for this quest?" Javal immediately gets up on his table and yells, "I Javal Zarrias I am a strong muscularly tiefling and would like to help you dear scientist" he bows his head deeply, "I swear on my honor as a former member of the black dragon pirates that we will accomplish our goals. 

"Excellent! Two volunteers for this quest. Come, we must set out at once." Lloyd said as he patted both of them on the shoulder and took off out the tavern's door.

Blue Raspberry followed after him, looking at the Tiefling. "Javal! Do you remember me? I'm happy to meet you again, friend!" they said to the man as they walked behind the ooze researcher.

They three walked straight out of town, into the nearby forest as the sun was high in the sky. Blue Raspberry had gotten much better at walking in their armor since they had last seen Javal in Capitol Landing. They weren't nearly as clumsy anymore, able to keep up with the excited researcher as he lead them through the trees.

"Now, I believe there is an ooze in this direction that should be large enough to reproduce. According to my research, small slimes often appear after a sighting of a large ooze. My hypothesis is that the smaller oozes are being produced by the larger slime somehow, and oozes can only reproduce once they are large enough. So, if this data is all correct, we should be able to witness the birth of a slime if we find a large slime, and there was a sighting of a large slime in this forest just the other day!" he spoke, growing more excited with each word.

Lloyd was correct that a large ooze had been spotted in this area recently. However, he was unaware that he was not the only one attracted by such news.

Excellent! Two volunteers for this quest. Come, we must set out at once." Lloyd said as he patted both of them on the shoulder and took off out the tavern's door. Javal then looks over to the armored warrior and it hits him "It is you Blue Raspberry I had a feeling it was you however didn't want to say just in case I was wrong and you were another intimidating powerful armored warrior that kind of mix up does happen you know". They then continued walking until the made it out of the town and into the forest. The excited scientist pace increased almost jogging now as he was jogging he says "Now, I believe there is an ooze in this direction that should be large enough to reproduce. According to my research, small slimes often appear after a sighting of a large ooze. My hypothesis is that the smaller oozes are being produced by the larger slime somehow, and oozes can only reproduce once they are large enough. So, if this data is all correct, we should be able to witness the birth of a slime if we find a large slime, and there was a sighting of a large slime in this forest just the other day!" The group made it too a large slime but they weren't the only ones there there was a group of about 5 bandits angry and as soon as they saw the party they went to face them. Javal is ready, "professor run behind some trees me and Raspberry got this". Javal then takes a stone rook shakes it and throws at next to the professor hiding behind a tree and Gustave his gargoyle appeared to guard the professor.  Javal then unsheathes his katana gets into a stance and charges. 

The three moved through the forest until Lloyd peaked through some bushes and held up a hand to stop the other two behind him.

In a whisper, he called over his shoulder "Look! There's the ooze. Stop here, we must not disturb it. It appears to be in the process of producing a new ooze."

Blue Raspberry carefully peaked through the bushes to see a gigantic green ooze the size of a bear. What would they consider this ooze? A cousin? No, they were pretty big. Maybe they're an uncle ooze. Or an aunt? It was about to reproduce, according to the doctor. The ooze was standing perfectly still, a seem starting to slowly spread across its surface to split a small chunk off of itself.

As they observed the ooze, a group of five came up behind the three.

"Hey, who are you? What are you doing in this forest? There's been a sighting of a huge ooze here, you know. It's not safe." One of the five said, drawing the group's attention.

"Ah, actually that's exactly why we're here. We're researchers observing the process of an ooze's birth. Please, don't disturb it." Lloyd replied to them quietly.

"Actually, we're here for the slime too. Here to kill that abomination!" the man said, drawing his sword and shield.

Javal immediately sprung into action, unsheathing his katana and charging at them while the ooze researcher ran behind some trees, protected by a gargoyle that Javal had summoned.

Blue Raspberry stood in front of the bushes, ready to intercept anyone who tried to attack his dear Uncle Oozey. Aunt Oozey? It didn't matter!

Javal got a good observation who they are up against here a Moon Elf, Mountain Dwarf, Aasmir, Lizardfolk, and a Centaur. He was sure that Raspberry could shield the noble slime and there is no way that the professor would be in any danger with Gustave protecting him. Now it was up to Javal and Raspberry to defeat these troublesome fellows. Javal then yells, "Hey Raspberry I'll take on the Aasmir, Lizard fellow, and the Moon Elf, can you handle the Mountain Dwarf and the Centaur for me please". The hunters split up just like Javal suspected they would, the moon elf notched an arrow and aimed for Javal as his other two opponents charged at him with spear and sword in hand. Javal dodges the charge from the two fellows but doesn't have time to dodged the arrow coming from the female moon elf it lands straight into his shoulder. Wow that hurts  but that is alright a little arrow to the shoulder never hurt anyone before "Javal yells out". Javal can only go on the defensive right now just juggling avoiding and blocking his opponents attacks with his katana. Javal then gets an idea switches to using his katana with his left hand to continue blocking the onslaught of attacks and with his right hand he mounts at the sky and yells, "Hey Raspberry, heads up snow up ahead". Then above them appears a white cloud that begins to shoot out a flurry of snow not doing any damage to anyone but setting the battlefield with a distracting rain of snow.

---

1. Snow Flurry

Blue Raspberry took a fighting stance, ready for the Dwarf and Centaur to approach. They had no weapon, so they just raised their gauntleted fists. Their armor started sparking, electricity arcing off onto the ground around them.

The Dwarf ran forward, raising a large war hammer to strike the armored knight and crush their plate mail. They aimed for the leg, not wanting to kill this person, and hardly being able to reach much else from their short height. Their goal was to kill the ooze, not a bunch of weirdos hoping to watch it give birth. Blue Raspberry stepped back as the hammer swung toward their leg, an arc of electricity shooting off him and connecting with the Dwarf's hammer.

The Dwarf gave a shout as they felt their muscles spasm from the electricity and their arms went numb, the hammer dropping from their hands. They looked up at the knight, baffled by the sudden turn of events. Blue Raspberry stepped forward and placed a hand on the top of the Dwarf's head, causing them to shout and go stiff before collapsing to the ground, groaning.

The Centaur watched all of this with a stunned expression. They thought the Dwarf would take this guy out easily. They wouldn't even need to help. They readied their bow and arrow to shoot at the armored knight. This wasn't as good a match up as the hammer-wielding Dwarf had been. Arrows weren't great against heavy armor, but they had to try anyways.

Then, a flurry of snow started to fall around them. Great, now this is an even worse match. The Centaur thought to themself as they aimed their bow.

---

Lightning Armor

After Javal started the flurry of snow that changed the turn of battle for him the archer wasn't able to get a good shot since Javal was dodging around and the barrage of snow. Javal is relieved that he won't have to deal with that for a bit so he switches his focus to attack he switches back holding his katana with his two hands and clashes against the aasamir and lizardfolk. The lizard with the shorts word keeps slashing at Javal while the aasmir thrust his spear trying to catch javal when he dodges away from the sword. But now that he's attack things are gonna change Javal instead of dodging and weaving swithes to charging and slashing his sword his target is the lizardfolk first he kicks him in the stomach thats his opening he hits him with the bottom of his katana and he knocks out to the floor. He then faces the aasmir a bit thrown off of what just happens but he charges at javal thrusting his spear at javal. Javal clashes with his sword Javal overpowers and and hits him with the back of the head. Well looks like that leaves one he sprints over to the moon elf who tries to shoot more arrows at him most miss but one of them hits through his hand. Javal then makes it to her and headbutts her and she is knocked out. He then turns to centaur facing raspberry

The Centaur cursed as they missed each shot, the wind and snow whipping their arrows off of their intended course. They turned to see how their companions were doing. Hopefully they were faring better against the Tielfing than he was against the knight. They were stunned to see that they had all been knocked out and the Tiefling was now looking at them.

They dropped their bow and held their hands up. "We surrender! We had no intentions of fighting you. We were just here to exterminate the ooze, but fine. We'll leave. You can watch you ooze.... multiply, or whatever it's doing."

He walked over to his Dwarf companion and reached down, trying to shake them awake. Blue Raspberry backed away, the lightning arcing off of them fading away. They looked back to the green ooze that now had a seem nearly completed. Lloyd also emerged from his hiding spot to watch the ooze, not wanting to miss this moment.

The Dwarf awakened with a groan and followed the Centaur's lead, rousing the others with more groans and headshakes. The group left, the Aasimar glaring at Javal angrily before heading out. With the threat gone, the group was now free to observe the ooze as the seem was completed and a second, much smaller ooze popped off of the large ooze.

"Am I an uncle now?" Blue quietly asked as they watched the oozes start to slime away into the trees.

The trio returned to the tavern after Javal pulled the arrows from his body and called back Gustave into a chess piece to rest, he was grateful for his help. The whole way back to the tavern t the professor was talking the whole way about how much of a wonderful breakthrough he got from seeing it up-close. They had then made it back to the tavern he quickly bows to his friends and says "I'll be right back i want to talk to those hunters there here". Javal then walks up to the group and bows deeply, "My apologies dear fellows it was not my intent to fight you but my good friend the professor is a slime researcher so those slimes mean very much to him so I couldn't let you kill them, you guys are strong I hope we meet again". He then returns to the table where blue and the professor are talking excitedly about slimes. Javal doesn't really understand it but their exactment is making Javal excited so they're all excited now. The professor then says this is not the end of my research there still must be more work done to learn more about slimes.