I nocked and arrow and fired at the slime monster from my position in the sewer tunnel. If my theory was correct it’d help me in the long run.

All damage negated.

I thought that might be the case.

I nocked another arrow and stepped over the threshold before firing again.

This time there was no notification. The arrow pierced the slime’s gelatinous body and broke into tiny particles almost instantly. Was the slime adsorbing my arrow?

Thanks to my Health Sense skill I could see a floating bar above the boss slime’s head. It barely seemed to move as the arrow penetrated it.

However, I was still firmly in the testing phase. So I stepped back outside the boss room.

Boss health has been fully restored.

After completing the simple test I had a rough idea of how this new boss room feature worked. It seemed that I couldn’t cause it damage unless I was actually inside the boss room. If I left it would go back to full health so there was no loophole to exploit.

That was a shame. My original plan had been to step in, shoot and step back out. I could have done that on repeat for as long as it took and meditated when I needed to refill my stamina.

However, it seemed like that plan wasn’t going to work.

I’d have to kill it in a single fight. I could, in theory, leave the room if I lost too much health. But then the fight would start over from scratch.

It was a useful failsafe but one I’d be loathed to take.

I didn’t know for sure, but it stood to reason that the boss slime couldn’t damage me if I was outside the room either.

At least that would put us on an almost equal playing field.

My biggest concern now was how to do enough damage to kill it. My arrow barely left a dent, figuratively speaking since I pierced all the way through and got adsorbed.

Hopefully my Soul Shot skill would even the playing field a lot. Either way though, this was going to be a royal pain in the ass.

I had one last preparation to make before entering the chamber. I focused on the slime and a notification popped up on my HUD.

You have discovered a new monster:

Slime Queen

Have you ever wondered where slimes come from? They come from the Slime Queen, obviously.

Like a queen bee, her life’s purpose it to pump out babies. Don’t feel bad for her though, she’s asexual so there’s no vaginal chaffing involved. Then again, her entire body is kinda like lube anyway…

Oh, one last thing. The Slime Queen is impervious to acid. Ha! That’s what you get for destroying my present.

“Are you still mad about that? It was a pair of socks!” I shouted at the ceiling like a crazy person.

Despite the system’s nonsensical jokes and aggression, it did actually give me some useful information for once.

Firstly, if this Slime Queen was creating the little slimes then she was likely to be the source of the infestation mentioned in the quest.

Secondly, she was impervious to acid damage. Making my class completely useless in this fight.

I guess it’s gonna be an old-fashioned slog.

With my preparation done, it was time to kill this thing.

I raised my bow and nocked an arrow before stepping into the boss room once more. This time, as I drew the bowstring back, I focused as much stamina into the arrow as I could.

Soul Shot leaked a green glow from my fingers and onto the arrow. Usually I fired them at this strength, but this time I wanted more.

I continued channelling stamina into the arrow. The green glow got brighter, casting an eerie glow on me and the walls nearby.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I felt an immense tension in my arm and the bowstring. It felt like if I forced any more stamina into the shot I’d break my arm – or the bowstring, or both.

So this is my limit. I thought, noticing that my stamina had dropped below halfway just from this single attack.

Grinning maliciously, I fired the arrow. It literally blasted from the bow, forcing me to stagger backwards slightly.

It was like a missile being fired from a bazooka. I was so shocked I didn’t even nock another arrow as the first flew through the air so quickly my eyes couldn’t even register it as it seemed to instantly impact with the slime.

It flew straight through the slime’s gelatinous body and exploded in acid green light. I cheered involuntarily as the slime’s health dropped by half.

“Holy shit that’s so OP!” I said to myself.

At this rate all I needed was another shot like that and I could kill the behemoth in two hits.

The slime’s face changed.

It’s drawn on appearance shifted from a frown to an O shaped mouth and its eyebrows dropped in an angry line.

I think it noticed me.

It seemed to breath in as the air around me shifted and I was dragged towards it. It was like being in one of those indoor skydiving places, except it was a horizontal pull.

I tried to ground myself but it was no use. panickily I raised my bow and fired three arrows in quick succession.

They seemed to do no damage at all as they entered the gaping mouth hole and burst into particles inside its body.

Is that going to happen to me?

There was no way. I was not going to become slime food. Fuck that noise.

I nocked another arrow and began channelling stamina through my Soul Shot attack. If I could get off one more good shot before I was sucked in it’d die and I’d be safe.

I pushed my stamina to its limits once more feeling as if my arm was going to break. Then I released the string and fired.

It was a straight shot. I was mere inches from entering its mouth. This had to work.

The arrow blasted with such force I lost the grip on my bow. It left my hand and got sucked into the slime, but not before the arrow entered its mouth.

Once again a green aura exploded out of the arrow upon impact and the slime… cried out?

I didn’t even know slimes could make noise.

This one made a deep, growling sound like a demonic rottweiler.

Focusing on my Health Sense passive skill, I looked up once more at the slime’s health bar. It hadn’t worked.

It had taken some damage, good damage even. Its health was now clearly in the red. But it wasn’t dead.

That was the last thought I had before I was swallowed by the gelatinous beast.

My entire body went numb as I was surrounded by slime. I couldn’t breathe, though I wasn’t exactly going to try to breathe inside this disgusting mess.

I felt my clothes and mask disintegrate around me. My bow was hovering just in front of me and it looked worse for wear.

For some reason it hadn’t completely disintegrated yet. I reached out and brushed it with my fingertips and pulled it back into my inventory.

It was too late for my clothes, but the bow might be salvageable.

A myriad of notifications blinked onto my HUD.

You have been poisoned.

Poison negated by Skill: Minor Poison Resistance.

You have been poisoned.

Minor Poison Resistance has failed to negate the poison effect.

You have been subjected to stamina drain.

You have been subjected to HP drain.

Item: purification mask has been destroyed.

Item: black shirt has been destroyed.

Item: white belt has been destroyed.

Item: black pants has been destroyed.

Item: black shoes has been destroyed.

…

It continued like that in a constant stream of incoming stat buffs and item destruction.

It was pretty irritating, but not as concerning as what it all meant.

Checking my HUD I could see my HP and stamina draining rapidly. I entered my inventory and clicked on a stamina potion.

It barely did anything as my stamina continued plummeting.

I had no idea how the poison was going to affect me but I could deal with that later. From the look of the notifications my Minor Poison Resistance skill had put up a valiant fight but had been quickly overwhelmed by this toxic environment.

I summoned my dagger.

If I was going to die in the pit of slime queen’s stomach I was going to at least give it some bad indigestion.

I began slashing at the space in front of me. Moving through the slime wasn’t easy, but there wasn’t that much resistance either. Though with the slime having immunity to acid I had no idea if I was even causing any damage.

I tried to look around but everything was blurred and my eyes stung with an intense, overpowering heat.

I wondered if that was being caused by the poison.

Floating ahead of me was a tangible looking orb. I wandered what it was? Was it the slime’s brain? Do slimes even have brains?

I didn’t have time to work out the answers.

My dagger was looking worse for wear as the slime’s body dissolved it bit by bit.

Slicing at it from the inside didn’t seem to be doing anything and my HP was almost in the red. I slammed down on a healing potion but it’d only buy me a few more seconds.

After that I’d be digested.

Gross.

Doing the only thing I could think of, I pulled the dagger back into my inventory and began swimming towards the glowing orb.

I was betting my life on the hunch that it was part of the slime, an important part.

It looked more tangible than the rest of its gelatinous body and I had no idea what else to do.

I didn’t want to die here.

I wasn’t going to leave my unborn child without a father. I had to beat this thing. I had to beat it so I could get stronger and bring them here and protect them.

I swam forward in a haggard front crawl. I felt like I was moving in slow motion. The slime’s body was hard to move through.

Still, I cut through it with my arms and legs and propelled myself forward.

The slime was bigger than me by a fair bit, but it wasn’t even the width of the local swimming pool back home.

I didn’t have far to go.

My lungs burned and I breathed in on reflex, swallowing a huge chunk of goop. I began retching as the burning got so much worse.

You idiot! Slime isn’t oxygen.

I felt the tips of my fingers brush against the orb. It was tangible, it felt solid, hard even. If it was hard then I could smash it. That was the crux of my last-minute master plan,

I summoned my dagger and as my arm rotated around in the front crawl style, I slammed the tip of the blade into orb with all of my failing strength.

Nothing happened.

Shit, have I backed the wrong horse here? Am I really going to die? No. I won’t lose.

Instinctually, I thought of the feeling I got when I used the Soul Shot skill and I channelled all of my remaining stamina into my dagger.

The dagger glowed with a faint green aura, I could feel the strain on the weapon even though I had barely any stamina left to use,

I brought the dagger down with my last ounce of strength just as my stamina reached zero.

The dagger and the orb both smashed simultaneously and a bright, blue light emanated from it, blinding me.