My dagger smashed like a pane of glass and the orb simultaneously broke into larger fragments.

As the orb broke apart it emitted a bright blue light which blinded me. It was like staring at the sun.

My eyes burned but I couldn’t look away as the amazing and dazzling light enveloped the entire room.

Then, for a moment, I felt weightless as the slime around me seemed to vaporise.

The weightlessness lasted for less than a second before I fell to the floor on my back. My HUD flashed red as the bit of health I had left dropped into the deep red zone.

The slime queen exploded outwards at the same time, like a viscous water balloon. It literally seemed to pop and gooey slime innards painted the wall bluish brown.

They also painted me from head to toe. I must have looked like the latest recipient of a Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Award.

I’m alive. I thought dazedly as my victory finally sank in.

“Fuck yeah!” I screamed.

I started cackling hysterically like an evil witch as joy and relief flooded through me. I’d pulled it off, if only by the skin of my teeth.

I’d have to work on not getting so close to death next time though. It was becoming a bit of a habit and one that I’d rather not repeat.

I tried to punch my arm into the air but it wouldn’t respond. My entire body was paralysed. A worrying thought occurred to me: maybe the slime’s gelatine had a paralysing effect as well.

Also, the poison was still coursing through me. I wasn’t out of the woods yet.

I’d have to work on regaining my strength later. Right now, I needed to get my health back up and I needed to do it fast.

I only had a few HP remaining and the poison was still inside me. Though I didn’t know how effective it was, I wasn’t going to risk it.

How tragic would it be to beat the slime queen boss monster only to succumb to poison a minute later?

I couldn’t take anymore potions so I dived into meditation.

It was a little odd doing it without my usual pose, but I’d gotten so used to the feeling that being flat on my back didn’t stop me.

As I focused on breathing deeply and visualised my inner circuitry, I saw the problem.

My health was tinged.

The vibrant and thick crimson rope that usually represented health had a purple tinge to it.

This must be the poison.

The rope was broken and frayed all throughout my core and limbs. I’d have to focus on fixing that up first.

I began channelling energy into the rope. Visualising the oxygen I breathed as vital energy which I could mould into health or stamina at will.

It was like dough: pliable and ready to be shaped.

I breathed deeply, almost in a trance as I concentrated on sending the raw energy to my rope of health.

It worked, but much slower than usual. Parts of the rope began twining together, fixing the parts where they were severed.

However, the colouring was still wrong and the rope continued to fray even as I directed energy to it.

It was like something was fighting me.

Like the poison was destroying my rope at the same time as I fixed it.

I was slightly faster though, so as long as I kept it up I wouldn’t die. But I would be stuck in a relative stalemate.

I needed to focus on the poison itself. If I could destroy that then I could heal myself unimpeded.

I began to visualise what it would look like to get rid of the poison. At first it seemed simple. The rope needed to be red, I needed to purge the purple tinge.

That was easier said than done though. As I focused on channelling energy for that purpose, nothing seemed to happen.

Maybe I was visualising it wrong.

If I thought of the rope as an actual piece of material rather than a metaphor for my health, maybe that would help.

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If a real rope was off colour, you’d need to wash it. So perhaps if I imagined the energy washing over the rope rather than pulsing inside of it, that would do the trick.

It didn’t.

Back to the drawing board I tried to think of another way to purge the poison. Perhaps it was inside the rope, fraying it from there.

If that was the case I’d first need to expel the poison. With that in mind I visualised the raw energy flushing through my rope like a pipe.

I wanted it to force out anything inside it, purifying it internally.

After a while of trying to focus on that, it seemed to work.

My rope started looking redder as little drops of purple were expelled from it and seemed to float in my blood.

After a while of focusing on that, the rope shone a vibrant crimson once more and the fraying began to fix itself.

Still, the purple blobs remained.

I’d need to purge them completely if I wanted it gone. Otherwise they’d probably just bind to the rope again eventually.

I imagined the energy flooding through my entire body this time, not just the rope.

I felt it, like the cold, intrusive feeling when you get a vaccination.

The energy flooded through me and as it’s bright, white light touched the purple blobs they evaporated.

Booyah!

I was now poison free and back to full health. Next I needed to recharge my stamina coil.

With the hardest part done though, the next bit should have been a sinch.

I switched views and looked at my body through the metaphorical eyes of stamina. My coil was dark.

I could see it sitting there, but there wasn’t even the slightest tinge of yellow. I’d need to fix that. It shouldn’t be difficult but it might take a while.

I’d never fully drained myself before. I had no idea what kind of adverse effects it might have on my body.

I began visualising the raw energy flowing through my mouth and into the core of my stamina coil.

It worked, but it was a slow process. It was like lighting a campfire on a windy day.

Sparks came and died before they took flame. I concentrated and repeated the process over and over but the most I could manage was a slight yellowish hue in the very centre of my core.

I needed to try a different approach. Maybe something more powerful, like a jolt, would work.

I visualised the energy flowing into my mouth and stopping in my throat. I kept it there, drawing more and more raw energy in.

Then I pushed the energy together, compressing it into a tight ball. I rotated the ball, making it spin faster and faster until it glowed with a magnificent white.

Then, and only then, I mentally catapulted it into my core.

It hit me with a start.

I gasped and felt my heart pound faster. My core lit up with a magnificent yellow light like the glowing, golden sun.

It had worked, though I felt a bit sick from doing it.

I felt myself cough blood and ended my meditation for a moment to role onto my side.

Outside of meditation my whole body ached like I’d just been at the gym for hours on end.

I dropped back into mediation and could see why. The yellow light rushed through my stamina coil and within moments it was lit up brighter than ever before.

It seemed full.

How had I done that? It’d had an almost immediate effect. I’d never experienced it before, apart from when taking a potion.

I switched back into health view and understood why I’d coughed blood.

The rope has completely split apart in multiple places in my core. Somehow, forcing the restart on my stamina had damaged my health badly.

I took a few calming breaths and did what I always did. I gently focused on moving the energy into my core to fix the rope up again.

It took some time but before long it was fixed and I exited meditation again.

I opened my eyes to see the boss room pained almost entirely with blue and brown goop.

My HUD was abuzz with notifications and a loot marker hovered in front of me.

I guessed it was as good a place to start as any.

Loot: Slime Queen

Y/N

I mentally asserted yes, of course. Why wouldn’t I? I received two things. Firstly, a whopping 1000 gold coins.

It seemed that the 10 coin a kill rule didn’t apply to boss monsters. 1000 was a drop in the ocean after all the slimes I’d massacred. Still, I wasn’t going to say no to more money.

Secondly I received something called a slime core.

I delved into my inventory and focused on it.

You have received a new item:

Slime Core

The core of a slime is akin to its brain and heart. It is the only weak point on a slime and for more powerful variants, the only way to truly finish one off.

That was all it said. I was thankful that there weren’t any snarky remarks, but it still didn’t tell me what I could do with it.

What it did do was confirm my suspicions about the glowing orb I’d broken my dagger on. That must have been the slime’s core.

I wasn’t sure if it was luck or instinct that made me swim towards it. Either way, I was just thankful it had worked.

I sat up, feeling oddly good.

The mediation really had worked wonders. I felt physically refreshed.

Though I was pretty sure I’d spent a long time meditating this time around. I looked around the room and saw that my creepy, clingy torch was still burning bright.

I picked it up and threw it out of the boss room into the sewer water. I blinked and it appeared back in front of me, still burning.

I guess there really is no way of getting rid of it.

I pulled it back into my inventory. There was nothing I could do about it now.

The boss room was cast into darkness. It was merely an empty cistern now though.

I got to my feet and left the room, walking out into the sewer tunnel. Then it hit me.

The stench was inescapable.

It had been mild in the boss room, like a hidden force field kept the odour away. Out here though, it was everything.

It hung thick in the air, almost tangible as it made my nose crinkle and gut wrench. The rest of this quest was gonna suck balls.

I placed my hands over my eyes, wiping them as they watered from the smell. I brushed them through my hair as I groaned and felt the soft touch of skin.

Skin, wait… where’s my hair?

I began rubbing my bald head like a man possessed. My hair was nowhere to be found. Had it dissolved along with my clothes inside the slime.

I jolted as I realised… my beard.

My hands jumped to my chin, patting, and hoping to feel the coarse new beard I’d been cultivating. My new look for this world.

It was gone.

Hesitantly, I looked down.

Yup, thought so. I look like a porn star down there.

It seemed all of my hair was gone. My leg hair, my arm hair all the way to the hair on my head.

I was completely bald. Like one of those expensive cats that old aristocratic widows liked to buy.

I slumped my shoulders and sighed. I looked like a giant newborn baby.