- Shari -

The courtyard.

It should have been obvious.

Everyone who can is still at it to brush all the slime here away.

Usually, it would dissipate on its own, but that's apparently not the case if it accumulates meters high.

They put up several tents here from the army's travel equipment to accommodate the servants who lost their quarters along with the main building.

But as I said, most of the field is unusable for this purpose as the slime occupies it.

I would help out, but have a mission and am fully occupied.

I move to the field's center, ignoring all the stares I receive.

Sigh, I'll just have to do it.

Yet there's a slight problem with that.

* "How exactly does one do this?" (Shari)

* "It's not so difficult. You need to get rid of your clothes. Then you're moving over the area where you want to dig down. Ehm, you'll have to let go of your shape for that." (Liqu)

* "Wonderful. Full exposure of something I don't even want to experience, so everyone can gawk at my misery." (Shari)

* "Don't worry, I'm here for you." (Liqu)

* "That doesn't help!" (Shari)

I have no choice.

First, I'm going to strip in front of all the staring men who probably haven't seen a woman's body in far too long.

The one thing that's bothering me more than this is that most of them when they look at the slimy contours only see the bad imitation of a human body thought to deceive and lure an unfortunate victim in.

Which is thoroughly killing any erotic implications.

Yes, this might be even worse.

Damn, I really should ignore that.

* "Fine, how do I go about this." (Shari)

* "We need a hole downward. So you need to lose shape and dissolve against the ground." (Liqu)

* "That's easier said than done. Giving up on my form just like this!" (Shari)

* "But you've already done it. For example, when you climbed the wall." (Liqu)

* "Back then I pressed myself against the surface. This is different." (Shari)

* "Then just think about pressing against the ground." (Liqu)

* "That... That could actually work." (Shari)

While I know that this slime is right now totally smug, she at least abstains from making another reply.

This is already hard enough as it is.

I follow her suggestion and lower myself against the ground till I'm lying flat on the surface.

I've already gotten rid of my clothes, so all I have to do now is to start the dissolving reaction.

Given that I'm naked there shouldn't be anything to increase my sense of shame.

However, I'm so goddamn reluctant to dissolve in front of people.

I always avoid having people looking at me while I'm eating.

This might not be quite the same since it's just earth.

Yet I'm digesting something like this doesn't make it better.

* "And none of these assholes will stop staring!" (Shari)

* "As soon as I'm back at it, I'll dissolve them for you." (Liqu)

* "Stop joking. I have to get over myself here." (Shari)

* "I know you can do it! You're always doing great whenever it matters." (Liqu)

Sigh, once again I'm encouraged by this slime.

And it feels so goddamn honest and supportive.

Damn!

"Zsch"

Before any thought can keep me from doing so, I start the reaction.

It's... extremely hard on me when my self-conscious feeling catches up reminding me of the gawkers, but I persevere.

Instead, I channel this feeling to accelerate the dissolving reaction, since I now really want to sink into the ground and stop being seen.

It's proceeding rather quickly after this.

I dissolve faster through the earth than I thought, given the former impressions I had when I did the same with stone or other hard materials.

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I've never consumed flesh at such speed.

It's definitely different to melt yourself through something.

The other issue I have right now is that, once more, my human shape is disintegrating.

Losing form simply feels wrong, no matter how often I do it.

There's always something like an illusion of stability I have going for me.

While I know that my body lacks anything that would make it a body or even provide the slightest bit of firmness, I can, with sheer willpower, push enough against the outer world so I can maintain my shape and even wear clothes or carry stuff.

It's obvious that this requires at least a bit of force to pull off.

However, what happens now is completely the opposite.

The illusion crumbles and I turn into a blob and become once again aware of how liquid I am.

That there's nothing stable about me and even snails would have more resistance against stuff entering them.

There's nothing to retort if I'm just slime filling up a hole.

It's one of those unwanted moments of truth when you're brutally honest with yourself.

Nonetheless, while I'm dissolving the earth, I also have to move further in the direction of the dungeon.

What makes this worse is that the movement for creeping through a hole is a bit different since my body is sticking to the earth.

The only solution, which once again comes disturbingly instinctive to me, is that I have to do this digging movement like when I let go of the dead matter.

I pull slime from where my feet were a moment before and let it travel through my body till they reach the furthest point in front of me while keeping up the dissolving reaction.

Did I ever mention that it's an estranging image when what you just before perceived as your feet is passing your navel and ultimately leaves through your head?

Ever had your feet in your head?

No?

You lucky ones.

After I'm some meters in, Liqu begins to speak in my mind.

* "Be careful not to dissolve a too large hole. It might collapse." (Liqu)

* "Collapse!?" (Shari)

* "Only if you take so much away that the earth can't support itself anymore. And even if that happens, your mass should cushion any impact and the shell around your core be able to withstand the pressure. As long as there's no scratch, there's no harm." (Liqu)

Great, now I have to worry about being buried alive.

Yes, I know that being alive is questionable in my case.

Now that no one can see me anymore my initial panic slowly subsides.

Sadly, this is accompanied by increased awareness of the process.

While it's good that I am more focused on the digging there are unpleasant sides.

That I'm basically eating dirt is a thought I can push aside by telling myself that it's a pure necessity of the digging process.

Rather it's more a form of manual labor than eating.

However, this doesn't include other things I consume.

I've already dissolved a bug, a worm, and several grubs.

* "Why the heck are there so many critters in the earth?!" (Shari)

* "Isn't it nice? You're barely losing energy even if you're accelerating the process as fast as you do." (Liqu)

* "No, that's not nice!!" (Shari)

I deliberately chose a place close to the cellar.

I only have to melt diagonally in its direction.

As soon as I reach hard stone, I know that my torture will shortly come to an end.

Yet, as expected, the stone is a bit more resilient to my advances.

It takes some minutes till I'm through.

Finally, I can flow into the cavity.

In there I'm rather glad for my night vision as every light source stopped working.

I go straight to my room.

But before I take my cloak, I instead take my remaining blades, stuff them inside me, being careful not to accidentally hit Liqu, and squeeze myself back up through the hole.

There I drop everything I don't need and grab my gloves.

The whole purpose of this endeavor is to have something to wear.

This won't work if I drench them during the transport since I have no time to wash them.

I can't wait to get back in because several onlookers came closer to the hole and made a big show of panicked retreat when I got back up.

Back down, I take mine and Liqu's cloak.

However, I become aware that I can only drag one at a time through the hole if I want to be sure that the ceiling won't crush me.

The earth is staining them a little, but they're traveler's wear and rather proof against outer influences.

Like this, I've reclaimed our most valuable possessions.

So I can now attempt something riskier.

And this is my still-filled bag.

This one is rather big so I couldn't simply get it through the hole without risking a cave-in.

But I don't need to get down another time.

I only have to get out.

I widen the stone hole so it's barely enough for the bag to fit in.

After this, I position myself in front of the bag and intentionally elongate my "body".

Like this, my hind side will drag the load while all the important stuff is located on my front, which is in fact only mine and Liqu's cores.

Now, if transporting the big bag causes the tunnel to collapse, I won't be in any danger.

I can even simply dig it out again because the earthen pressure shouldn't be enough to destroy it.

Fortunately, nothing happens and I can drag myself out of my burrow.

There I'm naturally still confronted with the annoying looks of far too many people who, contradicting the count, don't have anything better to do.

I can't get away from them fast enough.

While this experience wasn't great for my mentality, I think getting my equipment back was worth it.

I pull everything to the room I claimed and start to pack for the journey.

One pack for me, and one for Liqu when she eventually will be able to form a human body again.

Also, after quite a long time since I last wore it, I finally use my high-quality cloak again to cover myself.

Nothing against our uniforms but nothing can compete against a tailored-personally-for-me item.

And since we have to go incognito, I couldn't use them in the first place.

After I'm done, I walk to the carriage.