Rosie awoke with a shriek. She shot up to a sitting position, then instantly froze, feeling the extreme pain that coursed through her torso. Then, she remembered the fear, the shock, and the agony, while her chest throbbed.
She had messed up. As a second-year in the Haberion Adventurer Academy, she should've already been used to monsters. They had fought against them many times in the Academy. But this was a real dungeon, and when it came time to actually fight a monster with her life on the line, all her training seemed to have been thrown out of the window. Her footwork had been awful, and she even forgot how to block. It was a disaster. She shouldn't have been so excited to fight. As the teachers always said, Adventurers must be diligent and cautious. There was no room for errors.
Rosie opened her eyes and was greeted with a recently familiar sight. It was the same cave in which they had faced that boss monster, where she had been taken down by a lowly skeleton. But when she looked around in a panic, all she could see was a slime sitting next to her, seemingly not doing anything, an opened package of first-aid supplies, and a random assortment of items that spilled from the backpack Mr. Gradra had been carrying.
Rosie looked down to see she had been wrapped in bandages, albeit rather crudely. At the same time, the slime seemed to have woken up and slowly approached her. But Rosie didn't panic. The slime was tiny, about the size of a rat, so it could only be a level 1 slime. Slimes were terribly weak and at level 1, were considered more like plants than even animals. They had no intelligence and only randomly wandered dungeon halls, occasionally bumping into other slimes and merged, becoming slightly larger.
After looking around once more, Rosie carefully laid back down, wincing at every angle until she hit the floor and simply started to stare at the dungeon ceiling. She would definitely be sure to listen more carefully to Mr. Gradra from now on.
But before she could get even more immersed in her own thoughts, she felt a tug. A nagging feeling of unease.
Rosie turned her head to the right and was met face to "face" with the small slime.
"Agh!" she screamed in surprise and recoiled instinctively. Her surprise quickly turned into torment as she cried out in distress. Her wounds viciously stun from her recoil.
She sat up once again and wearily stared at the little slime. Her breathing was rough and staggered, and tears started to well up in her eyes. It seriously hurt.
Rosie thought the slime looked confused. Which was weird. She didn't even know monsters could express any emotions. Why did she think the slime looked confused?
The slime slowly approached and stopped right in front of her. It didn't attempt to attack her and just seemed to stare into her soul. Rosie sat there uncomfortably, the throbbing of her wounds greatly bothering her. She turned her head to see the wall not that far away. She carefully stood up and walked over to the wall, which allowed her to comfortably sit up. She winced with every step but eventually made it.
The slime followed her and just continued to stare at her with great interest. Very different from normal slimes. "Hello, little guy," Rosie said softly before lightly shaking her head in embarrassment. "What am I doing, talking to a slime... Where is Mr. Gradra anyway? If I'm still alive, it means he was able to save us. But why am I still in this cave?" Rosie thought aloud, glancing to the dungeon entrance.
Rosie waited. A minute. Then a few more. When she looked at the slime, she could tell that the slime had lost interest in her and had stopped paying any attention to her. Which was a weird feeling. "Have I gained a special power to read a monster's mind?" Rosie thought aloud. The slime seemed to have awoken when she spoke but quickly returned to doing nothing.
Half an hour. Now an hour. Rosie was starting to get worried. Where were Mr. Gradra and her classmates? Had they just left her there?
Another hour later, Rosie was very worried and felt something was really wrong. They hadn't been prepared to face any bosses, only the slimes near the entrance. This dungeon had a rather abundant range of slime monsters, up to level 4, and then a few undead at the very end. Mr. Gradra had only told them that they were facing slimes again and weren't going to go too far deep into this dungeon. But somehow, the boss appeared in the very first room.
They weren't prepared to fight a boss. They didn't have any tools to escape so they had to fight the boss before leaving. If she was still alive, then Mr. Gradra had to have defeated the boss monster. But Mr. Gradra was nowhere to be found. There wasn't any loot from the boss either. Had Mr. Gradra just taken the loot and left her? The thought crossed Rosie's mind, but she quickly shook it away. It was impossible, not unless Mr. Gradra really wanted to be punished. And not to be cynical, but he wouldn't have bandaged her wounds if that were the case. Also, why would he leave his backpack here as well?
But another question arose in her heart just as quickly. She looked over to the medical supplies and saw that the healing potion hadn't been used at all. It was still filled to the brim with the red liquid substance. Mr. Gradra wouldn't have forgotten something so essential, would he? Rosie unconsciously touched her wounds. It stung, but it definitely didn't seem to feel as extreme as the pain she remembered.
Rosie then started to carefully unwrap part of her bandages. The wound had barely been closed, and Rosie felt extremely uncomfortable revealing it. Disregarding the pain it caused her, she felt nauseous just looking at it.
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She quickly reapplied the bandages and sat back again to lean on the wall. She closed her eyes and began to pray. To pray that this whole ordeal was just a dream. To pray that Mr. Gradra would come to pick her up soon. To pray that her classmates were alright. And then she fell asleep.
When she awoke again, it was the same scene. A rather peaceful cave-type dungeon entrance that connected to a forest, a slime that seemed to just sit there, doing nothing, and a mess of supplies. No signs of Mr. Gradra. No signs of her classmates.
More tears started to well up in her eyes, but then she realized something. Her chest wasn't throbbing in pain!
Rosie hurriedly stood up, and could only feel a slight tingle and some itchiness. She glanced around, suspicious, and focused on the red potion among the first-aid supplies. It was still completely full. Which was kind of expected, the minor healing potion definitely couldn't heal her this much in a short amount of time.
Rosie then glanced at the slime, the only other suspect. She slowly approached it, trying not to scare it. Seeing it not move at all, she held her hands out and scooped the slime into her hands. The slime was a very common monster. Even larger, more dangerous dungeons couldn't escape from this ubiquitous monster.
But this slime was different. It seemed... intelligent. While Rosie examined the slime, the slime examined Rosie in return. Again, the weird feeling that it was looking at her came to her. But it didn't have any eyes. It was just the usual green slime with a single core.
"Hello again, little guy. Were you the one that healed me?" Rosie asked, not really expecting a reply.
And sure enough, the slime didn't reply. It just sat there on her hand, unmoving.
Sighing in frustration, Rosie set the slime back down. She then decided to take off her bandages and actually check the wounds. Maybe she could get some clues. When she unwrapped the bandages, she found something amazing. It was almost as if she hadn't been injured in the first place! There were no visible scars and the skin was perfectly smooth. But that wasn't the only change. Her originally tanned skin had lightened, becoming fair and perfect. Not a single blemish remained on her skin, not even the scars from her first fight with those goblins remained.
A shiver ran through Rosie's spine. Paling skin. Wound regeneration. Was she perhaps... turning into a vampire? She hurriedly checked her [Race] in her status.
> Name: Rosie Rancor
>
> Race: Human
>
> Level: 6
>
> Title:
>
> [Student]
>
> Strength: 12
>
> Dexterity: 7
>
> Constitution: 11
>
> Magic Power: 3
>
> Magic Control: 3
>
> Mana Pool: 70
>
> Wisdom: 3
>
> Perception: 2
>
> Willpower: 5
>
> Unallocated Stat Points: 6
>
> Skills:
>
> [Analze: 1]
When she saw that her race was still human, she sighed with relief and closed the status before checking anything else. But what had caused such a change?
Rosie looked over to the slime. It was at the exact same place where she had set it. She squatted down and asked. "Hey little guy, did..." she paused and laughed at the hilarity of the situation. She laughed at herself for thinking that slime could heal her. It had to be something else. A wandering sage, or a princely knight. How could a slime have healed her? How could a slime have changed her like this?
Rosie walked over to the backpack and started rummaging through it, quickly finding a clean, loose robe and put it on. Then, she began to gather all the other items that had been messily thrown on the floor, including the first-aid kits. While she was doing so, she couldn't help but glance back to the slime. It continued to just sit there, unmoving. But she couldn't help but think she had some sort of connection to the little slime. The feeling of it gazing at her, could that have been their connection?
She paused her cleaning to attempt to feel the feeling again. To feel the slime's gaze on her, but failed miserably. She shook her head in embarrassment and returned to repacking the things.
After finishing packing the backpack, she lastly picked up her sword and sheath and turned to leave. But she immediately back turned around when she heard the slime's squishy movements. Was it... following her? She paused, staring blankly at the little slime. But then she felt it again. The feeling. The connection. The slime wanted something from her. It wasn't clear what, though.
Rosie went back to the slime and squatted down and carefully petted it. The slimy surface was soft and bouncy, but it didn't leave any residue, which was something else that made it stand out from regular slimes. Then, she scooped it up in her hands.
Another thought then came to Rosie's mind. Maybe this slime was left by whoever healed her, for her to eventually be able to find the healer again. A busy Prince, who just happened to pass by and help her and heal her? But what Prince would be carrying around a slime?
Then, a random fairytale popped into her head: The Frog Prince.
Could it be... that a prince was trapped in the body of this slime? Rosie's heart started to beat faster and faster. It made sense. Who else but a dashing Prince could heal her body to such an extent. And it explained why the slime seemed to have intelligence.
...And in some versions of the fairytale, the frog could only turn back into a prince if the princess kissed it. Rosie puckered her lips and closed her eyes, ready to give the slime a kiss. And when her lips touched the slime, the slime squirmed a little, before settling down.
To Rosie's disappointment, it hadn't turned into a prince. But there were other versions of the fairytale. She could try letting it eat from her plate and allowing it to sleep upon her bed for 3 nights. But then, she actually realized what she was doing. Fairytales weren't real, they were just fantasy. And the prince was a frog, not a slime. She could feel her cheeks burning up.
Rosie quickly stood up, careful not to drop the little slime. "I'll just bring you with me for now," Rosie muttered softly toward the slime. The two then set off on a short journey back to the Adventurer's city, Monglory.