“Come on!” Kenshiro’s voice cracked as he stumbled backward, both weapons now gone, dissolved into nothing. In two strikes Ken had lost both the dagger and the fire poker. The slime quivered, growing slightly larger, and Kenshiro’s stomach churned at the sight. He was completely defenseless.
The creature continued its slow advance, its movements deceptively calm and methodical, almost as if it had all the time in the world. Kenshiro’s back hit the wall. His breathing grew more frantic. “No, no, no! Think, Kenshiro, think!”
He ran around the edge of the room, his Diresight coming in clutch as he circumnavigated the slow-moving monster. It seemed every time he hit it with anything it would snatch it out of the air, pull it into its body, pause, glow a little, and devour whatever it had taken. During that time Kenshiro would have a small moment to move—as the ooze seemingly couldn’t multitask.
Frantically, he reached into his pockets. His phone, his wallet—neither would help. But not caring to be the ooze’s next meal, he tossed his broken phone at the squelching poop monster.
Just like before, it snatched the phone out of the air as Kenshiro ran back toward the door and did his best to open it again. He clawed at the door until his fingernails broke and small red fingerprints started forming around the door’s seam.
Kenshiro whirled around as the slight glow emitted by the monster stopped. He tossed his wallet at the ooze, trying to buy more time. It seemed, however, that the wallet wasn’t going to buy him much at all.
Unlike the cell phone which bought him about a minute, the wallet dissolved in the creature’s body in a matter of seconds. Kenshiro closed his eyes and the light dimmed behind him. If he couldn’t get this stupid door open the only other choice he had was to hope he could yank the key from the center of the ooze before his arms turned to mush. He didn’t have much faith in that plan.
His fingers closed around the last object in his pocket: a small, battered tin of Mintia mints.
For a moment, Kenshiro just stared at it, his mind blank. The slime was less than a few feet away, its wet, squelching body inching closer. Desperate, Kenshiro flung the tin of mints at the creature, the small container spinning through the air.
It landed with a soft *plop* on the creature’s surface, sinking into the goo like everything else. Kenshiro’s chest heaved as he waited for the inevitable as he clawed at the door, his head turning back and forth between the ooze and the seam of the doorway.
The creature shuddered.
Its movements grew more erratic as it absorbed the mints. And then... it let out a high-pitched hiss. A strange bubbling sound rose from its core, and the slime’s body began to convulse, shrinking and hardening.
Kenshiro blinked, barely believing what he was seeing. “No way...”
The slime convulsed violently, its once-unstoppable advance now halted by something as absurd as mints. Its body, once gelatinous and smooth, bubbled and hissed as if it were being seared from the inside out. A faint pickled plum and minty smell filled the room, and Kenshiro, frozen in disbelief, watched as the slime began to stiffen and shed like a dried onion in front of his eyes.
The creature's movements became frantic, its form cracking and collapsing inward. The minty residue from the tin seemed to be drawing out all the moisture from its body, leaving it brittle and fragile. It looked like the creature was shriveling up before his eyes.
Suddenly, a sharp crack echoed through the chamber as part of the slime’s surface broke away, pieces falling to the ground in a dry, crumbled heap. Kenshiro stayed glued to the doorway, wide-eyed and breathless, as more of the creature broke apart, its translucent mass now hardening into more like dried mud than living ooze.
Still, he didn’t dare move. He barely even dared to breathe, watching the thing die slowly. It continued to sputter, each contraction of its body sending a shudder through the now shrunken form, like a deflating balloon.
Finally, with one last shuddering convulsion, the slime crumbled completely. What was left of its once menacing form was nothing more than a pile of cracked, dry goo.
Numbers appeared in his vision as the ooze stopped moving.
+200 EXP
-20 EXP (Conduit of Souls)
A laugh bubbled up in his chest, soft at first, but quickly growing louder. A genuine laugh filled with the pain, frustration, and anguish he had dealt with since the train crash. “I killed it... with mints?!” The laugh was breathless and manic, the tension of the battle spilling over in waves of disbelief. He sank down to the floor, laughing as he leaned his back against the cold stone wall. His legs wobbled beneath him, barely able to support his weight.
After a long moment, the laughter subsided, leaving him panting in the aftermath of adrenaline and exhaustion. Kenshiro rubbed his face with his hands, trying to calm his nerves. He had survived. Somehow, he had survived, and his brain was struggling to process how.
As the reality of his victory set in, Kenshiro forced himself to stand again, his legs still shaking but now more from fatigue than fear. He stepped cautiously toward the pile of dried slime remains, half-expecting it to suddenly come back to life.
In the remains were two small items. Kenshiro used the ability, Identify, right away, an action which continued to become more natural as he used it.
Item: Small Beast Core: OozeDescription: A tiny beast core from a creature with acid and devouring capabilities. Useful in crafting, rituals, or as an energy source. 25% drop rate.
Use Skill Eater:Y/N Item: Defecation Chamber KeyEffects - Opens the door to the Defecation Chamber in the Forsaken Temple of the Kindred Few.
Kenshiro took the key and the Beast Core, which was more like a small gem the size of his fingernail. The core was clear, much like a diamond, and was surprisingly heavy for its diminutive size.
He activated Skill Eater, the two skills popping up in his vision.
Select a skill to consume:
Skill: Devour*
Attribute: CON
Type: Active Skill
Requirements: None
Description: Absorb non-living material to restore HP and SP. Amount restored is proportional to the object consumed. Cooldown: 1 minute.
Skill: Acidproof*
Attribute: CON
Type: Ability - Passive
Requirements: None
Description: Reduces acid or corrosive damage by 50%.
*You currently have 1 CON Attribute Slot. You already have a skill assigned to your Vitality Aspect. If you do not select a new ability core will be converted into EXP.
Kenshiro glowered. “So there is a limit. I have to have slots? If only there was a way to conveniently see what slots and abilities I had. That would make this significantly easier.”
Kenshiro dismissed the messages and looked at the other small icons in his vision. The first one was less of an icon and more of a small list of numbers that remained small until he focused on them.
HP: 14/20
MP: 17/17
SP 10/17
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
EXP: 648/1000
“I have stats huh?” Ken touched his cut lip that was still lightly bleeding as well as his torched side. “Guess that’s what six points of HP looks like according to this system. I wonder what it’s based on?”
“Wait, I’m curious,” Ken said, a funny idea popping into his head. He had identified the imps, that dagger, and even the dru’ven monster. Each time it taught him just a little bit more about each thing. Maybe it could teach him about the changes he’d experienced.
Kenshiro used Identify on himself.
Character Name
Kenshiro Perez
Race
Otherworlder
Rank
1
Class
Skill Eater
Profession
None
Title
Conduit of Souls - Tara's Chosen
Level
1
Recovery Rate
HP
14
20
1.4
Day
MP
17
17
1
MIN
SP
14
17
1
HR
Experience Points
648
1000
Free Aspect Points
0
Aspects
Attributes
Level
Modifier
SLOTS
Vital
STR
12
1
2
CON
14
1
Grace
SPR
5
1
1
DEX
13
1
Insight
INT
13
1
1
WIL
11
1
Karma
LUC
10
1
2
FAT
20
2
Class Skills
Description
Skill Eater
Absorb the skills of defeated/willing creatures. Discarded skills converted to EXP.
Blessings
Rank
Description
Identify (Uncommon) (Outworlder)
1
Assess creatures, objects, and situations; grants basic info based on target’s complexity.
Fellowship (Uncommon) (Outworlder)
1
Allows the user to Speak, Understand, and Read the languages of Nowhere.
Conduit of Souls (Unique)
1
Allows Basic blessings of a divine being to assist you, costs 10% of all EXP gained.
Slots
Modifier
Attribute
Skill
2
1
STR
1
CON
Flameproof
1
1
SPR
1
DEX
1
1
INT
1
WIL
Diresight
2
1
LUC
2
FAT
“Woah,” was all Ken could say, his eyes flitting all over the screens in front of him.
Nervously, Kenshiro looked back at the locked door to make sure he wouldn’t be attacked while engrossed in the screens in front of him. Looking at his red stained fingers he felt a bit better as he slumped into the wall and tried to take it all in.
He stared at the top of the page, walking himself through the sheer amount of information.
“Alright. So I am an Outworlder? Not a human? Does that mean there are no humans here, or does that mean I am no longer human?” That information wasn’t going to really help him, but it was the first bit of information that concerned him.
Pushing that away he continued on down the sheet. “It also seems like you can have a profession. Does that mean there are no Game Developers here? Or is it more like an RPG where you can gain a utility skillset like alchemy or smithing?” Ken mused to himself. He had always loved games that let him add additional effects to things, maybe he could find something that let him do that.
“Alright. As for the stats…” Looking over the list, it seemed the stats were fairly straightforward. “I have two related… attributes, that when combined resulted in an amount of slots I have to store skills…”
What did bother him was the fact that for some reason, he had only five SPR, which he assumed was Spirit, and a whopping 20, the highest of all his stats, in FAT. He didn’t know what it was, Fate maybe?.
It also seemed like there was a minimum threshold for skill slots. Though he only had 5 SPR, his DEX wasn’t exactly high, which made him think that might be the case.
Last, were the Blessings. Kenshiro had three, although he had only used or experienced two of them so far. The Fellowship Blessing was something he had not yet seen. “So this means I can understand and read things eh? Which I bet is way more useful than whatever this silly Soul Conduit thing is.”