After Grace's disappearance John stayed with Annie and her family. Time went by and John having lost his mother started to seem happy again. It did get out that the two children found the slime and after a bit of looking around the adults said the slime ate her then left. When John found out he blamed himself for years. As he grew up, so did his regret and anger for the slime. Annie on the other came to be more curious about the creatures of this world. While John trained to kill them she studied to tame them. She wanted to live with the monsters and not fight against them. John didn't like the idea at all but she was there for him when he needed her most and ever since they were always together. As they got older they only got closer to one another. When John came of age he set out to kill the slime that took his loving mother away from him and to finally be able to forgive himself. Naturally when John tried to leave the only home he ever had after the death of his mother. Annie went with him saying he would get lost without her or starve to death with the way he cooks. After some fighting back and forth John gave in and let her come he knew that it was a losing battle. Because of the fight the duo set out around noon the sun still high in the air and sky clear with a few clouds lazily rifting across. John had no way of knowing if the slime from all those years ago would be in the same area or even alive at this point but he did know he would hate himself if he didn't try to look for it. They walked in the woods making their way to the base of the mountain. As they walked deeper into the woods Annie noticed the vegetation getting thicker as they went. She doesn't say anything but remembers that the elders and adults were talking about the lack of animals in the area over the last few years. She keeps this in mind as they walk the path. It was slowly getting smaller and smaller being completely taken over by the surrounding plant life. John doesn't seem to notice as he just walks over, under, or through everything and anything in his path. He seemed to only have one thing on his mind and that was finding slime and killing it. Annie and John make it deep into the forest by the time night falls so they set up camp and come up with a plan on how to kill the slime. They split up the night watch and set off in the morning hoping to find something that would lead them to the slime. After a few days they found a trail that matches that of a slime. John almost lost it a few times if it wasn't for Annie slowing him down and making him actually look at what he was doing. Around the third day they caught up to a huge slime that was at least fifty times the size of a normal slime. It was the same slime that they found when they were kids, but after all this time has grown into a King Slime. John sees the necklace that his father gifted to his mother still floating inside. John readies himself but Annie tries to stop him saying that it's too late the slime is about to die on its own. However that doesn't stop John from charging in and slashing at it. As the sword cuts clean through the slime, it explodes knocking both John and Annie to the ground. They get up and check themselves for any real damage. Afterwards they look around to see if anything is left of the slime and there were two baby slimes in place where the King slime was only moments ago. John goes to kill them but Annie stops him this time. She wants to train them and see what they can. John starts to argue but remembers how that went last time she made a stand on something. He just says ok and starts to head back picking up his mother's necklace on the way. Annie gathers the two slimes in some jars and follows feeling like she was a small girl again the first time she found the slime.
