“Shit... I’m lost”
His first clue should have been the increasing humidity and temperature. It was expected as morning turned to midday, but he was certain that wasn’t the case in this situation. The more Kai trekked, the darker the already dim forest became. Above him, little patches and holes in the forest canopy showed that the overcast sky had become gloomier. The dismal weather led him to the conclusion that he was either heading in the wrong way direction toward the volcanic Ashbourne Mountains or a storm was coming. Neither boded well for him.
His second clue came after walking for half an hour. He was still stuck in the blasted forest. The scenery of bark, shrubs, and grass was unending. No matter how long he walked, he couldn’t escape the woods. Either the entire forest looked the same or he was trapped in an illusion.
He was aware that he possessed an orientation problem, but this was getting out of hand. ‘Directionally challenged’ is what his mother called him. At least in the past as Ben, he could fly and find his way. Now he was stuck and lost like one of those beginners he used to look down upon.
His only solace was that the forest had calmed down. Either that or he had walked far enough away from where the action was happening.
The sound of flowing water broke him out of his musing. Marching right up to the source of the sound, he found a stream no wider than his height across, flowing gently down to wherever water goes.
Tearing off his helmet, Kai’s slick hair stuck to his head. The humidity was doing him no favors as he was drenched with sweat. He dropped the helmet with a dull thud before falling to his knees next to the stream. Cupping his hands together he gathered water into them, before bringing it up to his mouth and taking a sip. The water had a slight tinge of acidity but seemed drinkable. After getting his fill, he splashed his face and head with the water. He wanted to wash his sweaty body and underclothes, but he wasn’t about to remove his armor to wash up.
The water helped, but Kai still found himself tired. Physically he was fine. Looking at his resources, his mana and stamina were almost back to full. The toll of being on guard the entire time was wearing him down mentally.
His goal was to get out of this forest before sundown. Without any sensory skills he would be completely at the mercy of any monsters he encountered. Just thinking about being stuck in the forest during the night was causing his anxiety to rise. With the thick canopy and overcast sky, he couldn’t even determine in which direction he was heading. He was lost, and though he would never admit it aloud, he was scared.
Thinking his choices over, he considered his few options. He could follow the water upstream or downstream, praying it led out of the forest. The other, probably smarter option would be to climb one of the massive trees and look for the general direction of civilization.
Looking up, branch after branch loomed over him as it stretched out creating a multi-layered canopy. With no other recourse, he set his sword back in his sheathe and started the climb. The task of climbing had not been as easy as he had anticipated. His armor’s weight made it a grueling task even with his enhanced strength. Gone was the special trait of his armor, the thick branches overhead and dreary overcast sky making sure no sunlight ever touched it.
Peering down from near the top, Kai’s stomach somersaulted a little. A fall from this height would spell his end. That was only if he was lucky. If he was unlucky, he would end up breaking a lot of bones crashing from branch to branch on his way down, which would result in him either bleeding out or dying of thirst if he couldn’t move. Although he had one weak health potion on him, the weak version didn’t heal broken bones very well and certainly wouldn’t be able to handle many broken bones at once. That was assuming the vial didn’t break on the way down.
After reaching nearly 30 meters high, he balanced himself as he peeked his head above the final canopy. Overhead, turbulent clouds hung, swirling visibly as he watched them. To his front, he could see the ever-imposing Ashbourne Mountains, closer than ever. He was still kilometers away, but the daunting mountains towered in the distance, rising into the thick grey clouds and out of sight. Smoke bellowed from beyond the ridge, traveling up into the clouds to where Kai assumed smoke met clouds.
Well, that’s obviously not the right way, Kai sarcastically thought. The other direction was green until it appeared to taper off, hopefully leading to the edge of this forsaken forest. To his left and right, all he saw was more green.
With an idea of where to go now, he could see he had been walking towards the mountains this entire time. “Hah... I really screwed up.” At this point, he didn’t even care about finding the staging area from where they started the expedition. His priority was to get out of this forest. He just wasn’t at a level where he could traverse the area safely without help. He had been lucky so far, but that could change at any moment.
Back on the ground, Kai noticed the direction of the stream, which flowed towards where he had seen the edge of the forest. A coincidence? Maybe. But it wasn’t one he was going to question.
He began walking alongside the stream for five minutes, enjoying the sound of the gentle running water. It was then he noticed something peculiar about the forest floor. It looked like the grass had been trimmed down to practically nothing. What was most odd was the patterns that the trimmed grass appeared. It was as if someone had trimmed multiple half-meter wide trails straight through the forest with some intersecting pathways. Crawling forwards at a slower pace, Kai finally found the culprit.
[Slime – Foundation Level 71]
[Slime – Foundation Level 62]
[Slime – Foundation Level 66]
Kai couldn’t correctly estimate the number of slimes, the group of them meandered all around. Keeping his distance Kai watched the transparent gelatinous balls of fluid move around, slowly consuming the things around them. At their center, he could see a pure black core, not a perfect sphere, but round in nature. Strangely enough, it didn’t seem to possess eyes, ears, or a mouth. The restaurant at which he had been with Ashley, had slime cores on their menu, so he assumed they were some kind of exotic delicacy.
So, this is a slime… The restaurant had been the first time he had heard of such creatures. They didn’t look appetizing if he was being honest.
He watched on with fascination as grass enter the underside of the slime only for the strands to then be spun around, much like a whirlpool inside of the transparent body. Slowly the grass was dissolved until nothing was left, leading the slime to move to the next patch of grass. It was completely silent as it moved on from one section of grass to the next.
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After ten minutes of watching the scene of slimes eating grass, he decided they would be his next target. The slimes either lacked awareness and hadn’t noticed him or simply didn’t care, as they continued their unending feeding. They were basically free experience seeing how slow and vulnerable they appeared. How could he pass up such an opportunity? Better the weird slimes than the cute shadow foxes he had seen earlier.
There was simply no point in planning how he would attack. With his limited knowledge about the slimes, he had no clue what offensive and defensive abilities they possessed. The slimes were too spread out for his domain skill. He decided it would be the perfect time to use his gravity pillar skill. It had seemed tailor-made for such slow-moving creatures.
Quietly walking up to the nearest one, it continued eating grass, oblivious of his presence behind it. Activating [Gravity Pillar], the gelatinous ball squished down a little under the increased gravity, still rounded but more oval in shape. Unaffected by the increased gravity the slime started shuffling its way towards Kai, faster than he had seen them move before. Within a second it had quickly exited his gravity pillar, proving the technique insignificant against the slime.
Nearly face palming, Kai realized that the slimes were malleable. They didn’t seem to roll but slid and inched forwards, so his gravity was having no significant effect on them. While his gravity had been super effective against the behemoth soldier bees, it had no apparent effect against this enemy.
Taking a step, Kai slashed down at the incoming slime using [Heavy Blow]. The blade sped up under its newfound weight. He felt slight resistance as his sword entered the gelatinous body, its momentum rapidly dying out. Close to the core, the entire top half of his blade had stopped inside the body of the slime. He pushed his blade down, but it went no further.
The power of his blade should have been enough to cause severe injury to any beast in the foundation realm as long as he was able to land a clean hit. Somehow the body of the slime had negated his attack. He couldn’t even tell if the thing was injured.
The body of the slime began filling the void where he had slashed through, sealing his sword inside its body. Gripping the handle, Kai lifted his blade up trying to pull it out of the slime. Instead of his blade being pulled out of the slime’s body, the slime came with the sword as if they had fused together.
He whipped his sword back and forth but the slime persisted on the blade. It didn’t slide off like he had thought it would. His eyes went wide as saw the runes and glyphs on his blade flickering, the gentle light would dim before restoring itself, only to dim again. Is this thing eating away at my enchantments? What kind of budget enchantments did you make me Lyddia?!
Growling, Kai stalked up to the nearest tree and swung his sword horizontally into it the massive trunk. His face dropped when he felt his sword rebound. Instead of smashing the slime into a gooey pulp or pushing his blade deeper towards the core, instead it bounced off the tree, the force nearly ripping the sword right out of his hands. Activating his heavy blow, he swung his sword against the tree again. Instead of splattering the tenacious slime, his sword rebounded with an even greater force. After smashing the slime sword into the tree multiple times, he was beginning to grow annoyed.
Kai felt his anger rising. The enchantments were barely illuminated inside the slime’s body. He watched helplessly as they were clearly being drained and dissolved.
Distracted by the growing headache attached to his sword, Kai’s left hand began tingling. Looking down his eyes went wide. His hand was inside another slime that had soundlessly approached him and somehow enveloped his hand up to the bracer without him knowing.
“How the... “
Swinging his arm around, the slime remained firmly attached much like the one on his blade. Its core was about a hand length away from his own, but try as he might, his hand was stuck in the slime’s viscous liquid body. The tingling began transforming into something more irritating. With every passing second, his hand progressed from tingling, to itchy, to an uncomfortable warmth.
Urgency hit Kai as he realized he needed to remove his hand from the slime quickly or his hand would be eaten away like his enchantments. Dropping his blade, he placed his hand against the side of the slime and pushed against it, hoping to pull out his other hand. Instead of pulling his left hand out, his right hand sunk into the slime’s body. Now both his hands were stuck inside the single slime.
“FUCK!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. His frustration getting to him. He looked around and saw none of the other slimes nearby were heading his way at the moment.
The warmth quickly turned into the feeling of hot coals rubbing against his skin. This little shit is eating away at my skin!
With both hands trapped and the pain and his anxiety increasing with every passing second, Kai flailed and pulled his arms away trying to separate them. His strength was quickly draining from him as he pulled and pulled to no avail. The slime’s body had a firm grip on his hands.
Fine. If I can’t take my hand out, I’ll just push them in deeper. Sprinting over to the nearest tree, he pressed the slime against it and kept pressing. The slime’s body turned more oval in shape as he pushed harder against the tree. His muscles trembled as his hand began sliding further into the transparent viscous fluid. Within moments he could feel his fingertip touch the core. The slime trembled with either fear or gluttonous glee as it continued dissolving his hands.
After thirty seconds, his hand grasped the slime’s core. It was nearly a perfect fit in the palm of his hand. He hoped crushing it would kill the slime, assuming he could crush it.
Squeezing his hand against the hard cold core the slime vibrated heavily. Ripples ran across the outside of the slime exterior like waves. He felt the hold on his hands and arms loosen, but he didn’t stop squeezing. A crunch reverberated out, as his hand closed into a fist, the core crushed into small fragments.
You have slain [Slime - Foundation Level 72]
Immediately the slime dissolved into a watery liquid, as its body fell off his hand into a puddle on the ground. With his hands free, he stared at them. Both were red and blotchy, his left more so than the right. They still felt like they were on fire, the gentle wind stinging against his dissolved skin. His bracer remained unblemished. Its dull white coating was still perfect. His chest thumped with excitement and pain.
If I did not have magic resistance +4, I feel like some of my bones might be visible right now.
The other slimes were further away from Kai than before, eating their way through the forest. On the ground nearby, the slime was still confined to the top half of his sword. Gone were the enchantments, no longer illuminated in the dim forest.
Anger clouded his mind as he stuck his right hand into the slime attached to his sword. He walked the creature over to the same tree where its comrade had dissolved. He placed the slime against the tree and repeated what he had done before. The sword dropped to the ground as he destroyed the core. Agony ran through his hand as he picked up the sword, his nerve endings exploding due to the contact of the handle on semi-dissolved muscle.
The rest of the slimes were a problem. He couldn’t risk putting his hand through any more of the dissolving balls of evil incarnate. He still possessed his sword, which like his bracers, remained unblemished, except for the enchantments that were obviously gone.
Thinking on it, he didn’t understand why his sword couldn’t cut through the slime. Perhaps he simply lacked the strength and momentum to get through their thick viscous bodies. They had proven harder to deal with than any creature he had fought in this life. If chopping at them doesn’t work... then how about stabbing? With the point of impact not as spread out, I should feasibly be able to pierce far enough into the body, reaching its core. It was worth a try. Worst case, the slime gets stuck on his sword again and he just squishes it against the tree until he reaches in and crushes the core.
Stomping over to the nearest slime, Kai stood over the gelatinous ball. Raising his sword above him in both hands, he could swear he saw the slime tremble. His sword came down hard and fast as he used [Heavy Blow], piercing right through the slime’s body and into its core. Instantly the creature died, a ding going off inside Kai’s mind to reassure the fact.
Kai giggled with unrestrained delight.
Kai would never speak to anyone about the next few minutes. He went on a massacre, going from slime to slime stabbing into their cores, with a vicious smile on his face the entire time. His hands burned, but it didn’t stop him from enjoying his much-deserved revenge.