my head, so a third one was fully out of the question.
“Hey! I’m talking to you! Did you not hear what I said? You’ll be my mount until I’m as strong as my dad!” The voice shared more information than I cared to listen to.
The fact that the beast had ambitions and a present father were a tad bit intriguing, but not enough to get a reaction out of me. I began to walk off, following what I thought seemed to be a faint source of light. The slime followed behind, hopping and plopping loudly as it ranted about how I should feel honoured. Wonder why those words sounded so familiar.
Guess all shut-in and introverted beasts had ego problems.
The ground steadily cleared up as I moved away from my landing spot, but no exit was visible, and the light source I thought I was following was gradually growing dimmer rather than brighter as I approached. At this point, leaving would have been enough for me, the plant was no longer a priority at all. The gravity was certainly not a desirable alternative, but it was bearable if it's only a one time thing.
My frustration grew with every step I took, tiredness and soreness began to envelop my entire body. Though my recovery ability was supposed to surpass others, it seemed that it only surpassed others in terms of minor injuries. Anything that really packed a punch took way too long to heal. Though my theory of the ugly beasts themselves being the reason as to why my ability seemed to be slowing down was proven wrong, I was starting to realise just how useless my abilities are.
I took a seat against a wall, letting the cold and jagged stone rub up against my now bare back. Not a single piece of clothing of mine seemed to survive more than a week. I let my consciousness spill into my spatial ring, the only place with light. There wasn’t much to do in the ring, as my projected body could only have limited interactions with the objects inside.
If I could fully move about freely inside the space, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to stay inside for a while. Away from everyone, away from the world. Just take a few moments for myself to relax and de-stress. But seemingly, the current trajectory of my life didn’t have any room to slow down or stop for relaxation. So life goes on.
I swiped the pills and my sword, and slipped out of the space. The slime stood, or I guess was existing in front of me as my eyes opened. It was hard to read what it was thinking, as it was just a glob of goo, but at least it didn’t seem to be harmful. Placing my sword down, three pouches worth of pills spilled out into my hand. Staring at the six blue marbles in my hand, they didn’t seem like much.
I’d long since thrown away the boxes they originally came in, so even the slightest bit of grandeur they carried before was gone. Though upon Hadeon’s initial explanation, there didn’t seem to be much use for them, I was glad I kept them. There was a zero percent chance that the pills were harmful, and no matter what boost they provided or how small the effect was, anything would help in my current situation.
I popped all six of them in one go, closing my eyes and waiting to feel any differences.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Three minutes.
Four whole minutes passed, and my eyes opened once more, slowly as to allow me to take a long and deep breath. The way the pills were talked up by the knight, I thought they would have at least some kind of effect on me. Even if Hadeon was a complete hater, it was worse when he was right all the time. My frustration was reaching new heights, and I popped the next set of pills without even looking at them.
A horrible mistake.
The moment I swallowed the pill, an intense burning sensation flared in my chest, like someone had poured liquid fire straight into my bloodstream. I doubled over, clutching my stomach, my breath coming in ragged, uneven gasps as the pain spread like wildfire through every inch of my body. It felt as if my veins were on fire, my muscles twitching and locking up, sending sharp spasms that made me want to tear at my skin.
My vision swam, dark spots flickering at the edges, while my heart pounded so hard in my chest it felt like it might break through my ribs. Each beat sent a wave of agony pulsing through me, rattling my bones, my limbs trembling uncontrollably. Sweat streamed down my face, blurring my vision, and my throat tightened, but I couldn’t scream, could barely even breathe.
My joints throbbed, every nerve was alight, as if my body was being torn apart and rebuilt at the same time. Deep beneath the pain, though, I felt something, something strange, stirring inside me, like my body was fighting this torment for a reason I couldn’t quite grasp yet.
My body had experienced so much pain in torment in such a short time period, that even throughout this experience my consciousness never even came close to slipping. In fact compared to the other situations I’d been thrown in, this one was only about a six or a seven out of ten in terms of pain. Though I still did feel like I could die at any moment, but that was rookie stuff in full honesty. Death simply didn’t want me yet, and it could not make that anymore apparent.
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The slime took its chance as I was keeled over, jumping onto my back and snuggling up, getting nice and comfortable. In any other situation, it would’ve already been violently shook away and thrown, but now just didn’t seem like the right time. As the pain began to subside, a strange black liquid began to ooze from my body, secreting from every single pore.
As it all flowed out and my skin began to dry up, the pain ceased fully, allowing for me to grab the slime and throw it as far as I could manage. I pushed myself up against the wall once more, panting violently. Sweat followed the strange liquid, drenching me within seconds, but it wasn’t annoying enough to get me to wipe it off.
I stared down at the ooze of liquid that now spread around me, the putrid smell coming off of it nearly causing me to vomit.
‘You noticed as well huh metal man?’ Hadeon spoke up shortly after.
The two of them talking together, much less agreeing on something was enough to send shivers down my spine. After a few more moments of huffing and panting, I let out the question the two of them were waiting to answer to prove my stupidity.
“What are you seeing?” I asked out loud, the lack of any people allowing me to do so.
The slime called out asking me something about why I was talking to it, but it was naturally easy to ignore as it was still slowly hopping towards me.
‘Your body has rid itself of its impurities, as if you’ve broken through a major stage.’ Hadeon started.
Though their tones suggested something major and unforeseen had occurred, I could care less. The metamorphosis I’d experienced before did the same thing, and though it was much more painful, I could actually feel the effects of it. This one? Not so much. My body didn’t feel any lighter, stronger or better in any way.
‘You idiot! Do you not realise how major this is? These alchemists of your world have concocted pills that can force the impurities out of your body without a breakthrough! Do you understand what getting rid of impurities actually does?’ Hadeon yelled, noticing my unimpressed expression.
“What? It just improved my physical condition a little, how does that matter?” My mind had been trained to be unimpressed by anything that didn’t show immediate major effects.
“Why do you think you only go through a breakthrough once every major stage? Because they're pointless? No you buffoon! Because if you had them multiple times in one major stage you’d reach the pinnacle of the world in a few years, maybe even a few months! That ridding of impurities is not for some stupid physical enhancements, but to improve your rate of Qi absorption, to increase your affinity.
Without the metamorphosis you’d be stuck at each stage for hundreds of years! Maybe half that if you’re really talented, which let me remind you, you’re not!”
That would be a major effect.
This actually seemed to be something Hadeon was very passionate about, as he manifested in his cat form just to chew me out. His words hit me hard. The batch of pills I’d just idiotically swallowed all at once would’ve been critical in making up for my aforementioned severe lack of talent, had now been wasted. And if they were that precious, then the chances of me getting another batch was probably impossible.
A gift from god had dropped into my hands and I wasted it.
As my sorrow grew larger, another thought crossed my mind. I jumped up immediately, running and picking up the slime.
“If I agree to be your mount or whatever it is, can you get out of here?” I asked frantically.
“Hmph, you finally realised my true power huh? Naturally, I can help you out of here if you agree to be my-”
“Deal! Now get me out of here!” I yelled, interrupting it mid-speech.
“What are you doing you idiot! Do you want to become a shelter for beasts!” Hadeon roared, not realising he was insulting himself.
“It doesn’t matter. I need to get out of here as soon as possible!” I yelled back, a grin spreading across my face.
“Why?” Hadeon asked, his voice a bit hesitant.
“Infra said that it had no idea anything like that pill existed, and even you were more than impressed with it. Now why would I be sent to help the Hunters kill the Baron, and just happen to come across this new breathtaking and world-altering pill. If the information hasn’t been released to the world, why would I be sent here?” I spoke, stringing random words together.
“Not a word you just said made any sense, whatsoever.”
“They want to kill the Baron before the pills can be produced further Hadeon! They’re trying to stop them from being sent out into the world! Not because of any moral reasons!” I picked him up and laughed.
“That still doesn’t make any sense! Take a second and articulate your thoughts correctly! And put me down!” He tried to jump out of my arms.
“Forget it you won’t understand, I just need to get back immediately. I have a little talk to have with Artemis and the rest of them.” I placed him down and picked up the slime.
If I was right with my speculations, then the power I held over Artemis had grown exponentially. I now knew something she probably prayed would never reach my ears. Granted it reached my stomach, but that was still good enough.
“Alrighty, get us out of here little slime.”
“Hmm, little slime? Is that a title held by important people amongst you humans?” The slime asked.
“Yes, definitely!” I answered without hesitation.
“Good! I like this title, ‘little slime’.” It bopped up and down in my hands.
“Hold on tightly human.” It stopped moving for a few seconds, before it began to violently shake. Nearly vibrating itself out of my hands. My grip began to slip and even at a certain point my hands entered inside the slime.
The next second, everything around me shifted violently. A strange, twisting sensation gripped my body, like I was being yanked through space by invisible threads. The cave vanished in an instant, swallowed by a blinding flash of light. For a moment, there was nothing, no sound, no smell, no ground beneath my feet, just an empty, weightless void. Those seemed to be growing into major aspects of my day to day life.
Then, as quickly as it started, it ended. My feet hit solid ground, and the light faded. I blinked, trying to clear my vision, my heart still racing from the sudden teleportation. I wasn’t in the cave anymore. The cold, stale air was gone, replaced by the fresh, open breeze of the outside. My eyes adjusted, revealing the sky above and the distant hum of a forest at the edge of my vision.
Thank god I was finally out, though I probably should have asked the slime if it knew about the plant. Would have saved me a good deal of trouble.
As I looked down in my hands, I was met with an almost relieving scene. The slime was no longer in my grasp, in fact it was nowhere to be seen at all. For a moment I even thought Hadeon had been left behind, but his voice snapping at me in the next second proved that not all good things can come at once.
I began to walk away happily. No Alexia, no beasts, god knows where they went or why they didn’t follow me into the cave, and no little slime to claim me as its mount. If I managed to get rid of Hadeon as well than my life would be truly amazing.
But just as life seemed to be getting better, it crashed down once more as something tugged at my pant legs. I turned to look down at a pink dog now chewing at my pant leg.
“Filthy human! How dare you think about leaving after swearing to be my noble mount!” The dog shouted, in a very familiar voice.
Great. Instead of a beast daycare, I’d turned into a tamer. What a desirable outcome, that I genuinely appreciated. Life was just amazing.