Knees deep in mud, his panting muffled by the sounds of wildlife all around him and a large red lizard standing right in front of him, ready to rip his head out of his body. How had Ludo found himself in that horrible predicament, he wondered…
“Your fault for tempting fate again and wanting to do a Rank E quest again!”
“Shut up, Ben!” Ludo snapped as he shot an arrow at the red lizard, hitting it in the eye. In the confusion, he pulled himself out of the mud and into stable ground, inspecting the lizard with his magical eyes.
CRIMSON LIZARD
BEASTLY
LEVEL 9
THREAT: VERY HIGH!
Four levels above him, the crimson lizard moved to fast for Ludo to keep up, only seeing its movement thanks to the magical eyes. Barely dodging its long snout and claws until the red lizard had caught him, biting hard into his chest, thankfully the reinforced gambeson with mail had blocked the lizard’s teeth. Wiggling his way out of death’s jaws, he used the brief moment of surprise from the lizard to cut its head off with Glass Gambit. The lizard’s body fell to the ground and exploded into a cloud of light purple, leaving behind its scales and fangs as loot.
“I also took this quest because Auria wanted some of their fangs for a paralyzing potion.” Ludo grabbed the dropped fangs and wrapped them in a piece of cloth before putting them on his inventory.
“What would she need that for!?” Ben asked.
Ludo shrugged. “Animal hunting, I think?”
Pulling out the quest paper, he had four more crimson lizards to hunt and many other quests piled up. He sighed and continued his foray into the forest, arriving at a swampy patch, a bone shilling hiss was enough to confirm his targets were there, it didn’t take long until three Crimson Lizards jumped him. By some miracle, Ludo managed to evade all three lizards by jumping up and grabbing a vine, climbing it as fast as he could. Perched at a branch, he began shooting at the lizards with his bow. The arrows bounced off their hard scales as the lizards climbed up to him.
Ludo jumped to the next tree, landing on a wobbly branch, almost falling. The lizards were not far behind, they jumped to the same tree as Ludo and tried to bite him. Ludo cut half the snout of one with Glass Guardian and barely dodged an attack from another. Ludo jumped from tree to tree, evading the lizard’s venomous bites, but he was getting tired fast and couldn’t keep doing this forever. The lizards were catching up to him too, their jaws snapping closer to him every second. With no other options, Ludo jumped down from the tree, in the middle of the air, a lizard lunged at him, grabbing his bag and pulling it away. Ludo watched as his inventory space shrunk.
“No!” Ludo exclaimed, turning back to fight the three lizards when he noticed something. The lizard that had bitten the bag had frozen and fallen over as if turned into a statue, Ludo inspected it with his magical eyes and saw a new text under it that he had never seen before.
STATUS: PARALYZED
“Wait, what!?” Ludo dodged the attacks from the other two lizards and rushed to retrieve his bag and pull it out from the jaws of the paralyzed lizard. There he saw the teeth he had gathered from the first crimson lizard had dug themselves deep into the inner mouth of the paralyzed lizard.
“With this—“
“Get down!” Ben exclaimed. Ludo threw himself to the ground as one of the lizards pounced, scrapping his hair. Ludo ran as fast as he could through the soft and wet swampland until the lizards lost track of him. He threw his bag open, taking out the spare lizard teeth he still had and wrapping spare bandages around them, crafting a makeshift knife to use against the lizards to paralyze them.
Ludo ran out of his hiding spot and came face to face with a crimson lizard, lunging forward with the makeshift knife and stabbing the lizard’s neck. The lizard twitched and petrified before Ludo’s eyes, even unable to close its mouth anymore.
“Just one more…!” Ludo turned around and saw another two crimson lizards about to ambush him. They were fast, resembling a blur, they slithered towards Ludo and lunged forwards, almost swallowing him whole twice. Ludo, scored another success as the tooth-knife landed a lucky hit on the eye of one of the crimson lizard’s. The thing writhed and froze still, the last crimson lizard puffed and stared at Ludo before darting away from the scene.
Confused and tired, Ludo killed the paralyzed lizards, each one disappearing in a cloud of dust and earning him even more teeth and scales. As he killed the last one of the, he heard Ben scream followed by a sharp pain on his arm. Looking at it, he gasped and saw the last crimson lizard biting deep into him. Panicking, Ludo pulled his arm away from the lizard, ripping more flesh from his arm and causing him to scream in pain. He punched the lizard on the neck, making it let go of Ludo and Ludo responded by trusting Glass Guardian at the lizard, missing entirely, he tried to pull his arm back but it didn’t respond, he realized couldn’t feel his arm at all!
Knowing what was about to happen, he tried escaping but his legs stopped midway, causing him to fall on his back. Completely paralyzed, he couldn’t move nor close his eyes, the lizard loomed over him, opening its jaws, letting Ludo see its disgusting throat. However it stopped midway through, snapping back and observing around before scrambling away. Ludo tried to shift his eyes, move his neck or back, none worked, his body wouldn’t listen to him.
Is it all going to be alright? Ludo asked Ben, thankfully his thoughts still worked fine.
“Yes, the venom is probably going to leave your body in a few hours.” Ben said at the back of his mind.
Ludo stayed unmoving but conscious as his mind drifted along while the hours passed by, just as he was getting comfortable the ground shook, startling back to consciousness, he heard trees rustle at a distance and various animals ran over him, escaping whatever created such ruckus. Ludo tried to look around with little success, still paralyzed from the venom. Thinking the end was upon him, Ludo prayed to be spared, ignoring whatever it was that Ben was telling him. At the edge of his vision a tree shook violently, sending leaves flying at every direction, a stomp and more ruffling followed, throwing the tree to the ground right above Ludo who saw the tree fall in slow motion, just as the tree was about to crush him, he felt a sudden surge of energy he had never felt before and rolled to the side just in time. The tree crashed with a loud thud and its trunk broke into a million pieces.
“Hey the venom is gone!” Ben exclaimed but Ludo didn’t care, getting up on his feet, he tried to have a good luck at whatever had caused the ground to quake yet the only thing he saw was a large mountainous shadow pushing through the forest and disappearing in the distance in a matter of seconds. Ludo did not dare to follow. After staying still for a few minutes, expecting the gigantic shadowy figure to return, he continued walking down the forest despite Ben’s protests, doing all the fetching quests he could along the way and grabbing anything extra that Auria might have asked or that it looked like she could use for her potions.
As the sun began to settle, he began setting up a tent and a campfire for the first time in his life, barely avoiding causing a second forest fire. As he dined and went to sleep inside the tent, his mind went back to the time him and Emmer were on their journey to Balessia and for the first time since he had woken up, he felt alone.
I wonder how Emmer’s doing…
“The old man is probably enjoying a full meal, surrounded by people that love and admire him and sleeping in a soft and comfortable bed.” Ben said. “And, its not like you’re alone, you have me!”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Yes.” Ludo said absently. He expected Ben to say something because of his tone, but was surprised when the voice inside his head kept quiet. Ludo rolled around the sleeping back, trying to find a position that would finally put him to sleep as he didn’t have time to indulge himself in conversation, he had much to do the next day…
The sun rose, the birds chirped, it was a peaceful morning to everything in the forest except Ludo, who was busy cramming his tent back into his bag. He fixed the bag’s straps in a hurry and continued to do the easiest quests he had stuck up on. In no time, Ludo had already completed all of them and collected all the materials on Auria’s list. He sat on a tree stomp, scrambling through the shrinking ‘to do’ quests, at that point there was only a single quest that interested him out of the mundane rest.
HUNT A SLIME QUEEN
RANK F
LOCATION: THE FOREST
REWARD: 4 SILVER COINS (4 BONUS IF A SLIME EGG IS BROUGHT BACK)
Frowning at the vagueness of the queen’s whereabouts, he sighed and decided that this quest would be his last one for the day. Traversing through the old trees that had grown uncontrollably through the forest floor and the wild bushes and vines that created a labyrinth of green walls and roofs made the search for the slime queen almost impossible, but Ludo persevered and that stubbornest paid off with a single step into a pool of green mucus that stuck to his boot.
Ludo freed his foot with much effort and continued walking through the forest as it slowly changed from the magnificent and wise growth to miry marshes, the ground itself changed as well, the dirt was coated by a thin layer of green and every puddle and pool had multiple slimes residing on them. He was close.
“Where do you think the slime queen would hide, Ben?” Ludo jumped high in the air, landing a hit on a smile and causing it to explode in a cloud of dust, the level one slimes couldn’t do anything to him as he cleared the area.
“The slimes seem to like water a lot.” Ben replied.
“Right.” Ludo was somewhat frustrated at Ben’s vague answer, but he was right, the slimes seemed to congregate wherever there was water. After eliminating the last group of them, he heard a noise that made him jolt. Running water. Pushing through a thick wall of leaves, he stumbled upon a river, green in color as if completely consumed by slime, mucous bubbles drifted to the surface and exploded, leaving behind a visible green miasma in the air.
“This is it!” Ludo exclaimed as the river swelled and flooded its banks and the largest slime Ludo had seen so far emerged from its depths. There was no doubt that the river was close to the source or the source itself, even Ben agreed with Ludo there. The slime jumped high in the air, aiming to land on Ludo but he was faster than the slime. The big slime was relentless on trying to destroy him, managing to hit him with enough force to launch him towards a nearby tree.
Ludo got back to his feet, ignoring the ringing on his ears, the big slime jumped at him again and Ludo dodged and countered, slashing at the slime with Glass Guardian, large chunks of the slime fell off and the slime’s insides oozed out of its wound, but it still didn’t die. The slime rolled towards Ludo, trying to squash him with great force, but he countered by jumping high in the air and stabbing the big slime as he landed on top of it. The slime wobbled and exploded, leaving Ludo to fall on a gelatinous pool that drenched him on green chunks, yet it wasn’t all for nothing as the big slime had dropped three times the amount of loot compared to an average slime.
With the threat now behind him, Ludo began searching through the river bank for the whereabouts of the slime queen’s hideout, he found it in the form of an opening besides the river. A dark and perpetual, Ludo sighed, knowing that he had no option but to venture inside. He set a torch ablaze and pushed through for the quest’s sake, the typical rocky walls had been replaced by solid chunks of green, light green pimple-like protrusions dotted much of it and each one had a different type of animal or monster sleeping within. Ludo’s mind wasn’t allowed to wonder about the nature of such things as he saw a large rat being dissolved and turned into something resembling sand and that was promptly sucked by a tube connected to the pimples that extended further into the cave.
“I think these are like stomachs.” Ben said, Ludo grimaced at the thought of people being subjected to such inhumanities and almost vomited.
“And the queen?” Ludo asked between barfs.
“She has to be connected to these stomachs.” Ben added, Ludo took a better look at one of the green sacs, containing a large silvern wolf, curiosity got the better of him as he poked the sac with Glass Guardian and it rumbled in response as the tubes connecting to it throbbed.
With no doubts left, Ludo raised Glass Guardian and slashed at the sac, the entire cave trembled in response, dust fell from the ceiling and rock splintered from the walls. Ludo did not hesitate and attacked another sac, causing a worse reaction. In response, Ludo destroyed any sac he laid his eyes on, causing the cave to tremble so much he feared it might collapse on him until he felt loud step like noises approaching him. Taking a defensive stance, he placed Glass Guardian between him and whatever was coming. The cave rumbled once last time and the target of his quest appeared before him. A slime that covered almost the entire passage of the cave, a large, mass of terrifying green liquid, Ludo inspected the slime before him and smiled at the information.
QUEEN SLIME
LIQUID
LEVEL 7
THREAT: HIGH
Ludo lunged forward with Glass Guardian, piercing the slime’s outer membrane, the slime wobbled and responded to Ludo’s attack by throwing him with an unprecedented force the opposite direction and into the cave’s hard floor. Rubbing his head, he got up back on his feet, reading his sword once more.
“You do know that thing can just shake off an attack from that sword right?” Ben said.
“I know!” Ludo gritted his teeth and pulled out his bow, shooting an arrow into the slime and ignoring whatever Ben had to say. The arrow bounced off the slime, ricocheting around the cave and almost hitting Ludo twice until it broke in two after hitting a hard wall. He was running out of options, Glass Guardian nor his bow could do anything to the queen slime. Ben was advising him to retreat and come back once he was of a higher level but Ludo ignored that, he was not about to lose his chance at getting eight silver coins.
“We’ll have to improvise!” Ludo looked around the cave for anything that could be used against the queen slime, any sword, item or potion left behind by those that had fallen, but nothing appeared and the queen tired of waiting. She jumped at Ludo who barely dodged it, the ground shook and large pieces of rock fell from the ceiling, some of them on the queen, pinning the giant monster in place for a few seconds. Ludo didn’t waste this opportunity, he jumped on one of the rocks and began slashing at the open wounds until the slime freed itself.
Making a plan on the spur of the moment, Ludo baited the slime into jumping at him for a second time, creating earthquakes and causing more chunks of rock to fall on itself. Ludo used this opening every time, cutting pass the membrane and into the slime itself, screeches and squeals reverberated throughout the cave after each strike. It wouldn’t take long until the queen slime was vanquished. Backing away as the slime tried to strike him, Ludo saw it wince and wane trying to keep up the fight, it was dying.
Ludo baited the slime again, but in his overconfidence, he tripped and the slime landed on him, absorbing him into its center. Ludo couldn’t move nor breathe and all his skin felt like it was burning, for a brief moment he thought himself a goner until the usual stalactite fell on the slime, breaking it in half just enough for Ludo to escape and see something that caught his eye, a pearly green orb that shined brighter than anything else. In the moment Ludo activated his magical eyes and the world slowed down as he inspected it and gasped at what he saw.
SLIME HEART
Knowing what he had to do, he lunged forward, Glass Guardian in hand, focusing at the heart as the slime rushed to engulf and protect its own life, but it was not enough. Ludo cut through the thin layer of slime and into the heart, the slime gasped as its severed heart landed away from it and dissolved into a thick green snowy-like coating that covered the entire cave. Ludo fell to the ground, spitting some of the slime that had gotten in his mouth as he sat upright. He felt something resting on his leg and shoved his hands into the green snow and pulled out the slime egg. The same size as a chicken egg, green and moist and its shell bended on contact, Ludo carefully packed it to avoid breaking and left the cave in a blissful hurry, smiling as he saw the sunlight again.
The day had been long and Ludo was spent of all his energy, as he looked for a place to set up camp for the night, he stumbled upon his own actions, a scorched, blackened forest. Remainders of tents and tools confirmed to him that this is where the kobold camp had been a few weeks prior. Ludo walked along the remnants of the battlefield, finding himself reminiscing about that day.
“You shouldn’t be so nostalgic about it.” Ben said. “You almost died.”
“Yeah but it was thrilling, how Glass Guardian cut through the kobolds and —“
“You’re weird.”
“You’re ruining the mood.” Ludo said, crouching into a burnt tent and finding two chalices made of silver with a few gemstones encrusted in them. He would sell them later. Ludo continued looking for more leftover treasures when, just peeking through the scorched, blackened trees, he saw the roof of a building. Curious, he walked towards it and got a better look at it, made stone bricks, it rose a considerable amount out of the ground, enough for him to enter through a hole in a wall.
“It must have been covered by the trees before the fire?” Ludo asked Ben, as he lit a torch. He was greeted by a long dark corridor similar to the cave from earlier and an unfamiliar hissing and clicking. Unnerved, Ludo decided it was better for him to return to Balessia than dare risk fighting whatever lurked in the shadows in his tired state. He returned back to the surface and checked his status, surprise to see he had now gained two extra levels from all the adventuring.