Sandra looked around. She looked out at a vast vista. There were plains in front of her, lush green grass with small blue wobbly things moving around. Were those slimes? They looked like the ones in the game she played. A river ran through the fields, and there was a forest beyond that. Further still mountains clawed their way up to the sky. Behind her was a tall rough hewn grey stone wall. She was on packed dirt, which was distinctly different from the grass starting not a few metres in front of her. The slimes didn’t go onto the dirt, she wondered what was going on.
She had been on a bus to school, now she was here, what was going on? Had she somehow died and been isekaid? That wasn’t supposed to be possible, it was just fiction, but here she was, wherever this was.
She felt herself starting to hyperventilate, this couldn’t be real could it? She forced herself to focus on the feeling of the dirt under her, the swaying of the grass in the gentle breeze, the movement of the slimes, the smells of this place. This distinctly wasn’t a school bus, it didn’t smell of pee.
Feeling herself start to calm down again, Sandra looked around a bit more and noticed a small booklet lying on the dirt near her. She picked it up. It was titled ‘Welcome to the Dungeon’. Under that was ‘A quick primer for new arrivals’. She read it.
Turns she had been isekaid, she was in a dungeon, and if she fought her way to the 25th floor and defeated the boss there, she could go back to her old life. She looked out at the slimes in front of her and wondered just how she was supposed to fight them. If she did, the monsters would drop loot, and she could level somehow. She sat down and properly read it.
The slimes moved around, sometimes bumping into each other, but they never ventured from the grass onto the dirt.
Sandra was glad she’d read that, there was a wealth of useful information in there. She accessed her inventory with a thought and felt a series of boxes open up in her mind. She accessed the settings and set auto-loot to true. She put her inventory away and accessed her status with another thought, and a blue box (why was it always blue boxes?) appeared:
Name: Sandra
Race: Human 🔻
Str: 1
Agi: 1
Vit: 1
Int: 1
Soul: 1
HP: full
MP: full
XP: 0
Mana: 0
Skills: None
Spells: None
Inventory: None
Equipment: None
She mentally clicked the arrow next to her race:
Human ⭐
Wolfkin
Sandra looked at the slimes, Wolfkin had bonuses for combat, they had claws for a start, surely that was a better choice than human? But if she got to level 25 she could go back, can she go back as a Wolfkin? She had to make this choice before starting combat though, it could only be done before leaving the safe zone for the first time. There were 2 shops she couldn’t access yet, one for her stats, another for skills and spells. She couldn’t access those until she’d earnt some XP and Mana, and she got those from killing monsters.
Sandra looked back at her race choices, and picked Wolfkin. Her status updated:
Name: Sandra
Race: Wolfkin
Str: 1
Agi: 1
Vit: 1
Int: 1
Soul: 1
HP: full
MP: full
XP: 0
Mana: 0
Skills:
Claws
Spells: None
Inventory: None
Equipment: None
She stood up, and tried her new skill. Her fingernails shifted to simple claws, something like a dog might have, nothing like a dragon, it was just her hand with sharp pointy dagger like nails. Suddenly killing slimes was looking way more doable.
She noticed something behind her, and turned, claws at the ready. There was nothing there. But wait, it was behind her again, she turned again, ready to swipe at whatever was there, but again she’d missed it, somehow it was behind her again. She turned, and turned, and turned, and then it hit her: She was chasing her own tail. She reached behind herself and felt it, coming out of her just above her butt. It was soft and fluffy and that felt goooood :) She stopped, that was dangerous. She felt the top of her head and yes, there were 2 fluffy ears up there, and oooh that felt gooood too. “No, stop that, we’ve got to stay focused!” she said to nobody.
Back under control, Sandra stepped out onto the grass and waited. The slimes moved around her, one even bumped into her, but nothing attacked her. Was it really this easy? They were quite small though, she had to bend down a lot to reach them. She raked one with her claws and wounds opened up on it’s back. Was that a cry of pain? The slime bumped against her and, hey, that stung! Sandra attacked with her claws again and the slime died, dropping some small brown coins, and a small lumpy purple thing. Both disappeared into her inventory and she retreated back to the dirt.
The slimes didn’t follow her. They just continued to mill around aimlessly.
Sandra looked at her leg, it was slightly red, but she wasn’t cut or anything. She wondered just what that was. She checked her status:
Name: Sandra
Race: Wolfkin
Str: 1
Agi: 1
Vit: 1
Int: 1
Soul: 1
HP: 99%
MP: full
XP: 0
Mana: 0
Skills:
Claws
Spells: None
Inventory:
2 small bronze coins
1 grade 1 crystal fragment
Equipment: None
So she had been hurt, it wasn’t just pain. She checked her inventory whilst she waited, she had 2 small bronze coins and 1 small crystal fragment. She needed crystals for the store, she’d have to kill more slimes.
Sandra stood up again, her health was back full, that had taken a few minutes but the rash had healed also. She walked back out onto the grass again. The slimes milled around a few bumped into her, but none attacked her. She had an idea. She knelt upon the grass and found it much easier to reach the slimes. When one came close to her she raked it with both hands and it died before getting a chance to attack her. Again it dropped a crystal fragment and 2 small bronze coins. This was easier, Sandra felt she might have a crystal soon.
She killed every slime that came close, and soon she’d killed 10. She got up and started going back to the dirt, but realised that she was safe here also She sat down in the grass amidst the slimes and accessed her inventory. The notebook had mentioned that she could forge crystal fragments into crystals by a combination of physical and mental force. She wondered how that would work. She pulled the 10 small crystal fragments out of her inventory and they fit in the palm of her hand. She put her other hand on the top and squeezed them together, and willed them to fuse into a crystal. She felt something starting to happen, and willed harder, somehow. She felt the objects in her hands shift and settle into a new form.
Sandra examined the object in her hand, it was a small hexagonal purple crystal, about the size of her thumb. She’d done it, she had her first crystal. Now she was supposed to absorb it somehow. How did that work? Whilst she thought about it, she noticed the crystal just sinking into her palm. A new box opened up:
10 XP earnt
5 mana earnt
Another box opened up:
Access to XP shop granted
Access to Mana shop granted
She accessed the XP shop, it was pretty simple, she could raise her stats, 100XP per point. She finally got a explanation for what the stats did though:
Str
Increases the amount of damage when a physical attack hits, increases ability to carry heavy loads
Agi
Increases the chance of a physical attack hitting, increases reaction speed
Vit
Increases the amount of damage you can take before dying
Int
Increases the maximum MP
Soul
Increases the rate MP regenerates
She’d killed 10 slimes to get 10XP, she needed 100XP to level a single stat by one point. That was 90 more slimes to kill just to get 1 stat upgrade.
She accessed the Mana store, and was presented with an enormous list of very expensive things, most costing around 5000 Mana. Sandra mentally felt around the list, and found how to sort the entries by cost. There was one item that caught her eye:
Item
Cost
Summon Sword
50 Mana
Sandra felt that that seemed possible, and should help with killing slimes.
She changed position to kneeling again, and got to killing slimes. The claws really made this possible, she had no idea how hard it would be to punch one to death, and didn’t want to try finding out. Eventually she had her additional 90 slimes and laid back on the grass, it was just comfier than the dirt. She forged the fragments into crystals and absorbed them. She found it strange how they easily just melded into her flesh.
The slimes continued to mill around her.
Sandra accessed her status, and found she had 100 XP and 50 Mana. She bought Summon Sword.
New Spell Learnt
Summon Sword
She stood up and cast her new spell. She felt a chunk of something leave her, and a black portal opened up in her left palm, with a handle sticking out of it. She grabbed the handle and pulled out a sword. Oof, that thing was heavy. Sandra was lucky not to skewer her foot as she almost dropped the sword. She laid it on the ground and accessed the XP store, buying a point of STR. Her status now looked like:
Name: Sandra
Race: Wolfkin
Str: 2
Agi: 1
Vit: 1
Int: 1
Soul: 1
HP: 97%
MP: 10%
XP: 0
Mana: 0
Skills:
Claws
Spells:
Summon Sword
Inventory:
200 small bronze coins
Equipment: Mundane Sword
Wow, that single spell had cost her 90% of her MP, she wondered how much a higher cost spell would take. She picked up her sword again and found it easier to handle now. Using 2 hands she skewered a slime and it died with a single hit. This was a serious upgrade, and Sandra got to work.
Thomas looked around at a vast vista. There were plains in front of him, lush green grass with small blue slimes moving around. A river ran through the fields, and there was a forest beyond that. Further still mountains clawed their way up to the sky. Behind him was a tall rough hewn grey stone wall. He was on packed dirt, which was distinctly different from the grass starting not a few metres in front of him.
Thomas was overjoyed, finally this was his chance. He’d been playing games with his friends, but now he was actually in a dungeon, he charged at a slime and started punching it with all his might.
Sandra looked around, the sky was still bright, and she didn’t feel tired, she wondered what time it was. She’d been busy, and wielding a sword was getting easier. She’d ventured far into the plains but the forest was still a way off. She checked her status:
Name: Sandra
Race: Wolfkin
Str: 5
Agi: 10
Vit: 5
Int: 5
Soul: 5
HP: 99%
MP: full
XP: 0
Mana: 1200
Skills:
Claws
Spells:
Summon Sword
Inventory:
5,000 small bronze coins
Equipment: Mundane Sword
Sandra frowned, her HP was taking forever to recover now, maybe there was something in the Mana store for that. She checked and after scrolling for a bit found the following:
Item
Cost
Regenerate 1
1000 Mana
Regenerate 2
5000 Mana
Regenerate 3
10,000 Mana
The list went on and the costs got astronomical. But then when she’d started she’d thought that 1200 Mana would be impossible, but here she was. She bought Regenerate 1.
New Passive Spell Learnt
Regenerate 1
Name: Sandra
Race: Wolfkin
Str: 5
Agi: 10
Vit: 5
Int: 5
Soul: 5
HP: 99%
MP: full
XP: 0
Mana: 200
Skills:
Claws
Spells:
Summon Sword
Regenerate 1 (Passive)
Inventory:
5,000 small bronze coins
Equipment: Mundane Sword
She felt her healing speed up, though it couldn’t be quantified yet.
A strange squawk broke her from her musing. She dismissed her status and looked at a strange, fat bird waddling towards her. The slimes were giving it a wide berth. Sandra drew her sword and wondered how to use it against something that wasn’t a slime.
The bird approached her, as it got close enough it was identified as a Dodo. Sandra wasn’t sure, it didn’t look like it was going to attack, and she took a chance and just stood there, sword at something that felt like a ready stance. The dodo approached, looked at her, and ambled around her. It did not attack her.
Sandra relaxed and breathed. She had a better look at the dodo and thought she had a chance of cutting it’s head from it’s thin neck. She raised her sword and got ready to swing it down. When the bird got into position she swung to a spray of blood and feathers, and angry squawking. The dodo attacked her, viciously pecking her with it’s cruel beak and Sandra felt her health dropping precipitously. Sandra dropped her sword and ran. The bird pecked at her feet, and her poor, sensitive tail, but she somehow managed to stay ahead of it, her health slowly ticking upwards, oh so slowly.
She ran onwards, slimes scattering at her approach, the dodo kept pecking her legs, her heels and her tail. Her health ticked up slowly, but dropped more with each attack. The pain was getting intense, and she could feel her legs getting weak. She looked around and spotted the wall and ran towards it. It was hard to see the safe zone unless you were up close, there was nothing marking it as such apart from the dirt floor, which was lower than the grass level.
Sandra reached the wall, her lungs burning, her legs quivering, but this was still grass. She took a chance and turned left and kept running. The delay cost her though and the dodo had closed on her, gouging out her shoulder. Sandra screamed in pain and RAN! She could feel that her health was in single digits now, she needed the safe zone now!
Sandra ran on, her breathing was ragged and she was rapidly limping more than running, then to her horror she tripped, and fell onto dirt. She curled up, expecting more attacks, but the dodo wasn’t touching her, just angrily squawking. She looked around and saw the dodo attacking some kind of barrier, she’d made it, she was safe.
Sandra collapsed onto the ground and cried.
Thomas crawled back to the dirt section, desperately hoping the slimes wouldn’t follow. His everything hurt. His shoes, sock, pants, even his boxers were in pieces out there, in the evil grassed section. His entire lower body burnt, even the bits previously covered by his boxers. He’d killed 2 of them, they’d dropped some small brown coins and small purple lumpy things. Those were now out there, they’d been in his pants pockets. He’d gotten angry, being isekaid wasn’t supposed to be like this, he was supposed to be a hero damnit! Punching those slimes hurt though! And it took like 20 punches to kill just one! Then all they dropped was that crap? Where was his magic sword, his glorious armour, his adoring harem? He’d lashed out in anger and hit a few of them, and they’d mobbed him. Now he was half naked, in pain, and had gained nothing from it.
Thomas curled up on the ground and cried.
Sandra sat up. The dodo had left, and couldn’t be seen now, her health was back up to about 50%, and she felt better.
She felt something to her right, and quickly looked at the empty patch of dirt next to her, she got a glimpse of some male, about her age maybe? He was curled up on the ground and crying, and looked to be in a very bad way. Could she help him at all?
She wondered if she should though, her clothing had taken a lot of damage, one of her shoes was beyond saving, her socks were sodden with blood, her skirt had taken enough damage that she was sure her panties would show. Her shirt was also damaged, a huge hole out of her shoulder, that still throbbed, she was still wounded, just not near death. Did she want to meet a boy in this state?
Sod it, she reached out to where the boy was, willing in her mind to make a connection with him. The dungeon seemed to work on will sometimes.
Thomas felt something in his mind, a soft gentle feeling, someone wanted to join him? He mumbled a yes. His everything still hurt and he wasn’t thinking too well.
He felt reality, shift slightly? He was still on the ground, but now there was someone next to him.
Sandra saw the boy materialise before her, and realised with horror and interest that his lower half was completely naked! She blushed and looked away, but not before noticing the nasty rash which blotchily covered his lower half.
“Did the slimes do that to you?” she asked softly.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Yeah” he mumbled “I had to punch one 20 times to kill it, 20 times, how is that fair? And all it dropped was a couple of coins and a purple thingy”
“Wow!” she exclaimed, “20 times is a lot.” Sandra suddenly had an idea of just how much her claws had helped her out.
“Yeah, it’s so unfair, this was supposed to be my isekai hero fantasy, but it’s just hell instead.” he whined.
“What did you do to take so much damage? They’re not aggressive and their attacks are pretty weak.”
“I, uh, I got angry at the unfairness of this all and may have lashed out, hitting a few of them weakly, and they all ganged up on me and I barely made it back to the dirt here.”
“Yeah, this place is pretty dangerous. Did you read the primer?”
“The what? No, there was nothing to read.”
Sandra pulled her copy of the primer out of her inventory, she was sure this had been mentioned somewhere. Yup, there it was, it was another of those ‘do it before you leave the safe zone for the first time things’.
“Ahh, yeah, if you don’t pick it up before leaving the safe zone, it vanishes. Do you want to read my copy?”
“Yeah, thanks, I” He finally turned to look at her “Wow!” he recoiled, and pain flashed across his face as his legs unconsciously moved. “What are you?”
“What, I’m obviously a…” Wait, she was a wolfkin now wasn’t she, she had ears and a tail, but was still mostly human, ish. “I’m a wolfkin, what’s the problem?”
“But, you’re, you’re wearing a school uniform!”
“Yeah, I was human, but I chose to be a wolfkin for the advantages.”
“You can change your race?!?!” Thomas was incredulous, this was it, he could be a handsome elf and get all the women
“You can, but you have to do it before you leave the safe zone for the first time. So sorry, you’re stuck as a human.”
Thomas slumped, things just weren’t going his way at all. He’d never get his harem now.
“What’s your name by the way? I’m Sandra.” Sandra offered.
“Oh, Thomas.”
“OK Thomas, if you want to get anywhere you need to kill 100 slimes and collect all the little purple things. You have an inventory and you can access it by thinking about it.”
“I have an inventory?” Thomas thought ‘Inventory, Inventory, Inventory’ Nothing happened “It’s not working!” He wailed
Sandra sighed, really, was she stuck with a manchild here? “Try willing it to open.”
‘Open Inventory, damn you!’ thought Thomas. Much to his surprise, he felt a small amount of storage open in his mind “Aha, it worked!”
“Right, go out there and pick up your drops and put them in your inventory, then get killing slimes, one at a time, until you have 100 purple things.”
“But, it’s hard!”
“Yeah, it is, deal with it.” Sandra got up and cast Summon Sword again, she got an error message:
Error, sword is already summoned, unable to summon again.
She also got a hint as to the duration of her sword. With a sigh, she got up and left Thomas to his devices, she had a sword to recover, and a LOT of slimes to kill if she was ever going to get that dodo.
Sandra walked through the slimes, knowing that they wouldn’t attack her. Neither would most of the dodos, she just wasn’t sure about that one dodo. She found herself moving slower the further she got from the safe zone, and if she could have seen herself her wolf ears would have been flattened against her head. She couldn’t see the dodo anywhere so she cast Summons Sword again. It pulled her to her left a little. She was getting closer, she could feel it.
Thomas watched Sandra just get up and leave him. Didn’t she care about him? Why wasn’t she consoling him and tending to his wounds? Angrily he pulled himself up and walked onto the grass. He selected a slime and started punching it, imagining that it was Sandra’s head.
Sandra found her sword in the grass after, actually how much time had passed? There really was no way to tell time here. She gave it a few experimental swings and started heading back. She didn’t want to risk another dodo just yet.
She considered her stats and decided to get everything to 10 but spike AGI to 50. That was only 60 points she needed, so only 6000 slimes to kill. She got started as she walked back to the safe zone.
Thomas was onto his fifth slime, his hands hurt and he was sick of punching rubber for so little gain. He’d gotten 4 crystal fragments and he needed 100. How could he ever get that? This wasn’t his isekai dream, this was a nightmare. How could he escape this place? He continued to angrily punch a slime.
Sandra saw Thomas come into view. He glared at her angrily then his face blanched and he turned away. What was his problem anyway? She continued to kill slimes, she had stats to build. In a way it was good this place had so many slimes, in some parts the grass was literally all slimes. It made it easier, she could swing and hit 3 or 4 slimes if she tried, that made earning crystal fragments faster. She kept going, practicing cleaving slimes.
Thomas saw Sandra come back. He couldn’t believe how she walked away from him. How could she treat him like that? He glared at her, then saw how she was just casually swinging a sword, and 8 to 10 slimes just died. Suddenly he was afraid of her, she was a combat goddess and he was nothing. Could this possibly be her isekai fantasy and he was just a supporting character? No, that couldn’t be right. He shook his head to clear that thought from his mind, and kept punching slimes.
Some time later, how long he couldn’t be sure of, Thomas’s hands hurt too much to continue, and he crawled back to the dirt section for safety. His hands were red and ached and he was doing his best not to cry again, he’d already done that once in front of Sandra and damned if he was going to do that again.
Sandra took a break from killing slimes and lay down in the grass. It really did beat lying on the dirt. She made sure she laid down facing away from Thomas though, it wouldn’t do any good to flash him now. The slimes bounced around her, and some bounced gently into her but none attacked her. She checked her inventory and found she had 1248 crystal fragments. She got started forging them into crystals and absorbing them.
Thomas was incredulous, what was Sandra doing, she was lying in the grass, amidst the slimes, wasn’t she afraid? He got up and went over to warn her.
Sandra looked up to see Thomas standing over her, his everything hanging out. She shut her eyes. “You do realise you’re not wearing any pants yeah?”
Thomas gasped, turned around and knelt to hide his parts. How could she be so cruel? Why couldn’t she be nice to him. It was so unfair.
“How many slimes did you kill?”
“Six, how are you so good? Where did you get that sword from? It’s unfair, why do I have to punch things with my hands when you have a sword?”
“I got that sword from killing 100 slimes with my hands, that’s where I got it from. I worked to get this sword, why can’t you do the same?”
“It’s just too hard, my hands can barely handle killing 5 slimes.” Thomas got an idea, maybe this Sandra could be of use to him “Can I borrow your sword please? Just till I get 100 slimes and can get my own.”
Sandra thought about it. She really did have a massive advantage over him, 2 slashes was way better than 20 punches. Maybe this would get him to shut up. She picked up her sword and put it further away from herself. She remembered how heavy it was and didn’t want him accidentally dropping it on her.
“Sure, be careful though, it’s heavy.”
Well, of course a sword would be heavy for a girl, but he was a man, this should be no problem. He picked up the sword “Ooof” he groaned, and grabbed it with 2 hands, how could she swing it around so easily? He was having problems lifting it.
Sandra watched as Thomas strained to lift the sword. He couldn’t actually lift it off the ground. He had to drag it around. She wondered how long it would be till he started whinging again.
Thomas struggled to drag the sword, he’d given up on lifting it. He used it as a trap, he got it over a slime and let the sword go. The sword fell on the slime and the slime died. He put the coins and lumpy purple thing in his inventory and pulled the sword up again. Luckily the next slime wasn’t very far.
Sandra half watched Thomas kill slimes. She was still processing crystals. Idly she went through the mana shop and found a way to change it from a list to a tree layout. She saw magic there and started investigating.
Thomas had just killed his sixth slime with Sandra’s sword and his arms and back were killing him. How could Sandra swing it like that? She was just a girl. He slowly dragged the sword back to Sandra and lay down on the dirt again. He now had 14 purple lumpy things after so much work. How was this fair? This really was a nightmare. He wanted to go home.
Sandra had found an interesting option: she could coat her sword with fire :) That would increase the sword’s penetration she’d make it easier to kill the dodos. That was another 5000 Mana though. So now she needed 10,000 slimes. She spent the 12 crystals she’d earned:
Name: Sandra
Race: Wolfkin
Str: 7
Agi: 14
Vit: 7
Int: 7
Soul: 7
HP: full
MP: full
XP: 0
Mana: 800
Skills:
Claws
Spells:
Summon Sword
Regenerate 1 (Passive)
Inventory:
7,568 small bronze coins
Equipment: Mundane Sword
She looked over at Thomas, who was curled up again on the dirt. She collected her sword, put it in her inventory and walked towards him “Are you alright?” She asked
“No, I’m not alright. Everything sucks. Your sword is way too heavy, I don’t understand how you can swing it so easily.”
“Is it better than punching slimes?”
Thomas tight for a bit. He was tired and sore, but wasn’t in pain. “Yes, it’s better.”
“OK then. Take your time to recover, I need to go kill another 9000 slimes.” Strangely the thought of killing 9000 slimes didn’t seem so daunting. They were easy and plentiful and time wasn’t an issue.
Thomas got up, Sandra was still off a little ways, slaughtering slimes like some combat goddess again. He didn’t know how she did it. Without a sword his only option was punching slimes, and he got a thought. He punched one slime to death, and looted its remains. His hands were a bit sore, but not terrible yet. He punched another one to death and looted it. His hands now were quite sore. He went back to the grass and waited till he recovered. Maybe this could work. He wasn’t curled up in pain, and he could get back to killing slimes faster.
Sandra looked up at the sky, the sun was still telling her it was midday, and she’d finally gotten the extra 8,800 slimes. She sighed, and went back to Thomas, who was was sitting on the grass waiting for something. “How is everything?” she asked.
“Slow, but I’m making better progress I think. I’m limiting myself to killing two slimes at a go, I’m in less pain and my hands seem to heal up faster, I’m up to 50 purple things now. I tried killing 3 once but that’s too much pain to do often, and my hands took longer to heal, so I think 2 is the sweet spot for me right now.”
“Cool, I’m glad you’re feeling better about things.”
“Yeah, maybe this isn’t quite a nightmare, but it is a long slow grind.”
“Not that time has any real meaning here, I’ve no idea how long I’ve been here but the sun hasn’t changed position once, I’m beginning to think time may not actually exist here.”
“Time doesn’t exist?”
“Yeah, and if that’s true, I’ll be back on the school bus like nothing happened once I get out of here.”
“Oh, that could be nice. I’ll still need some more clothes though.”
“Yeah, I doubt I could get into school dressed as I am either. Do you want me to show you what to do with your crystal fragments?”
“You said once I got 100 I could do something.”
“Yeah, but there’s an intermediate step first, I’ve got 8,800 ish to process, that’ll take a bit. I’ll show you how.”
“Thanks, I wish I’d taken the time to read the book before I stepped out there.”
“Yeah, nothing we can do about that now.” Sandra sat down near Thomas, still desperately looking him in the eye, and nowhere else. “First, take 10 fragments out of your inventory and hold them in your hand like this.”
Sandra took out 10 fragments and showed Thomas. “Then put your other hand on top and squeeze a bit. You also have to will them to merge, willing them is more important than squeezing by the way.” Sandra converted her 10 fragments to one crystal.
Thomas covered the fragments with his other hand and squeezed them together, similar to how he opened his inventory he willed the fragments to merge into one crystal, like Sandra had shown him. He was surprised to find that after a bit, they squirmed and he was left with a single crystal.
“Well done.” Sandra congratulated him “Now gently push it into your body.” Sandra pushed the crystal into her wrist, her body accepted it easily.
Thomas was surprised, her body had just absorbed the crystal. He was too shocked to take action but then noticed that the crystal was already being absorbed into his hand. Then notifications started appearing:
10 XP earnt
5 mana earnt
Another box opened up:
Access to XP shop granted
Access to Mana shop granted
“You should now have access to the XP shop and Mana shop.” said Sandra.
“Yeah, I just got notifications about that. I really did get isekaid.”
“You had doubts?”
“Kinda, this just solidifies it. Any suggestions for what I should do next?”
“Yeah, in the Mana shop buy Summon Sword, and in the XP shop put a point into STR so you can carry it easier.”
You could increase your stats? Suddenly Sandra’s ability to swing that sword started making sense. She’d increased her strength enough that the sword weighed almost nothing. His horizon opened up, suddenly he had hope, he could do this, he could be a hero still. “Thanks, that helps a lot.” He meant that honestly. “Back to killing slimes for me then.”
“You’re welcome, get strong and conquer this place Thomas, it’s gotta be better than dying in here.”
“Yeah, thanks, I will.” Thomas got up and went out to punch slimes, hope in his steps.
Sandra started processing the rest of her crystals.
Thomas stepped back into the dirt section. He’d finally gotten 100 crystal fragments. He sat down and coped Sandra in forging crystals. Unsurprisingly he was done before she was. He inserted all the crystals into his body, opened up the Mana store, and was bombarded by options. He scrolled seemingly forever, but found the spell and bought it.
New Spell Learnt
Summon Sword
He then went into the XP store and put a point into STR. He had 2 STR now. Standing up he cast Summon Sword, and a black portal opened in his left palm and a sword hilt stuck out from it. He pulled and got a long thin sword. He almost dropped it. It was still too heavy for one hand, but with two hands he could carry it, though it was ungainly. Thomas stepped out and started killing slimes. It was only 100 more slimes till he could get another point in STR. It went much easier, a sword was definitely better than punching them. Thomas found himself starting to smile, maybe this place wouldn’t be so bad after all. Now if Sandra would just submit to him.
Sandra stood up. Thomas was out killing slimes by dropping his sword onto them, just like she’d done early on. His sword was thinner and longer, and seemed a little flimsy really, it wobbled a bit. Still he was studiously killing slimes and that was a good thing. Sandra accessed her Mana store, and bought Regeneration 2. Then she put up her stats.
Name: Sandra
Race: Wolfkin
Str: 20
Agi: 62
Vit: 20
Int: 20
Soul: 20
HP: full
MP: full
XP: 0
Mana: 300
Skills:
Claws
Spells:
Summon Sword
Regenerate 2 (Passive)
Inventory:
23,952 small bronze coins
Equipment: Mundane Sword
Another 10,000 slimes and she could buy that fire coat spell. Sandra was tempted to go try another dodo though, she had much better stats now, and better regeneration. It was time to go test herself. Thomas was still stabbing slimes, he seemed to be carrying the sword better now, she guessed he’d bought another point in STR. She wondered what build he was going to take. Spiking AGI still felt right to her.
“I’m off to try another dodo, good luck with the slimes Thomas. Don’t wander too far away from the safe zone till you’ve killed 15,000 or so of them. It’s a dangerous world out there.”
“Thanks, I’m getting better, I’ll catch up eventually.”
“That’s the spirit!” With that Sandra headed off to where she’d seen the dodo before, her tail gently swishing behind her.
Thomas watched Sandra walk away. It seems she didn’t realise yet that her tail made her skirt stand up and she kept flashing her panties at him. He felt in no mind to tell her either, he was enjoying the view too much.
Eventually the slimes started to thin out and Sandra found herself facing a thin flock of dodos. The forest was closer now, but still a fair way away. She didn’t think she needed to worry about it yet. She took a few experimental swings of her sword and found it a lot easier to move around. This seemed possible. Now to test if they would all attack her or just the one she attacked.
Sandra walked up to the closest dodo, caught its attention, and slowly walked backwards, pulling it away from the flock. When she thought she had enough distance she waited, then swung upwards at its neck. There was a spray of blood and feathers and the dodo attacked her, but this time she was ready, and it’s attack seemed quite a bit slower, she dodged, and swung at its body, scoring another hit. She dodged another attack, that one was close, and swung at the dodo’s rear. The dodo kicked her, and surprised, she was hit and knocked over. That had hurt, her stomach had wounds and her shirt was even more damaged. She rolled to avoid another attack and scrambled to her feet, putting a little distance between them. She felt her HP increasing, Regenerate 2 was doing its job.
The dodo came charging in, somehow it was slower than she thought it would be. Was her AGI doing this? She sidestepped and swung and hit, the dodo staggered from this and with another hit it was dead. Sandra sighed with relief. She’d done it! She checked her inventory and didn’t see anything new. She waited till her health was full and tried another dodo.
Now she knew more about their attacks, dodos weren’t too difficult to kill. Sandra knew she’d get better with practice so kept going.
Thomas had gotten his STR to 10 now and he could swing his sword around properly. His first attempt had almost cut his arm off as he didn’t stop it from coming back around at him. He too was cleaving slimes now. His swings were powerful, he felt that he would soon catch up to Sandra.
Sandra took a break to forge her crystals. She took 10 out of her inventory and squeezed them, and got a crystal with 5 fragments left over. That was strange. She tried again and got one left over now. It seemed that dodos were worth more than slimes. She got back to grinding. This would make it easier to afford that fire spell.
Thomas noticed Sandra walking back towards him. Her torn shirt kept showing him her bra. He stopped killing slimes and assumed a manly pose for her, the better to make her his.
Sandra looked at Thomas. He was standing strangely, and he was at full mast. She sighed, she decided to do something about this behaviour.
Thomas watched as Sandra walked right up to him. It was working, she would be his! His fantasies were shattered when her sword whipped out faster than he could see and he felt it against his most sensitive part. He cringed and wondered what he’d done wrong.
With the edge of her sword against his erection she looked him in the eye and said “You need to get that under control. I’m not interested in you and your behaviour is distinctly making me dislike you. Please be more careful in the future.” She withdrew her sword and walked away from him.
Thomas blinked. Had she really just said that to him? That bitch! She would pay for that! He would show her! Enraged, he charged at her, swinging his sword at her head. Only to find himself on the ground, his sword metres away. His back ached and his jewels felt weird. When he looked, he saw not his jewels but an angry teddy bear with horns. His mind blanked, what the hell? Then an angry goddess was shouting in his ear and his mind just couldn’t process it. The world turned black, when it returned everything was normal.
Sandra had had a feeling Thomas wouldn’t just let that slide, so she easily dodged his telegraphed swing. It was so very slow, far slower than the dodo’s had been, and that was before she’d processed 5000 of their crystals, her stats were even better now. She swung her sword at his head, she’d turned it so the flat side would impact, she wanted to knock him down, not kill him. Her sword impacted and he went flying, dropping his sword in the process. His eyes looked loopy then he blacked out. She left him, she knew the slimes wouldn’t attack him, and she felt safer away from him.
Sandra sat down near where the dodos flocked and started processing her crystals. She’d had it with Thomas, to think he’d actually attack her for telling him off for ogling her. She signed, and wondered just what it was with boys these days. Processing crystals proved to be therapeutic, almost like meditation. When she’d done all 5000 of the fragments she had 10,000 xp and 5,000 Mana to spend. She bought the fire coating for her sword.
New Spell Learnt
Fire Coating
She spent the xp on levelling her stats:
Name: Sandra
Race: Wolfkin
Str: 35
Agi: 102
Vit: 35
Int: 35
Soul: 35
HP: full
MP: full
XP: 0
Mana: 300
Skills:
Claws
Spells:
Summon Sword
Fire Coating
Regenerate 2 (Passive)
Inventory:
43,952 small bronze coins
Equipment: Mundane Sword
Sandra decided to try out her new build on the dodos, and was happily dancing between them slaughtering them with a sword that was on fire. She wasn’t sure if it was her stats or the fire coating, but her cuts were a lot deeper and dodos were dying in 2 hits now. Dodging them was a lot easier too. She danced between them, slicing them up and that too was therapeutic.
Ashkura was floating in a purple space, she cursed the stupid human male. She’d thought to give her chosen some company, but he’d turned out to be a total idiot and was just antagonising her chosen. She wondered if he should die to the dodos, or the wolves. The wolves were the real threat on that floor, and she hoped her chosen would survive them. Not many did.
Sandra stopped after another 2000 dodos, and processed the crystals. She was still pissed at Thomas, but it was cold anger now. It could wait. She had 2000 mana and 4000xp now. She banked the mana and spent the xp:
Name: Sandra
Race: Wolfkin
Str: 35
Agi: 142
Vit: 35
Int: 35
Soul: 35
HP: full
MP: full
XP: 0
Mana: 2300
Skills:
Claws
Spells:
Summon Sword
Fire Coating
Regenerate 2 (Passive)
Inventory:
47,952 small bronze coins
Equipment: Mundane Sword
She eyed the forest, and decided that it was time to give it a try. Dodo’s were getting too easy now. She walked towards the forest and caught sight of a wolf in there, it growled at her as she got close, but didn’t leave the forest. That was a good sign, she hoped it would hold. The wolf walked backwards as she approached the forest, but kept up it’s low menacing growl. Sandra carefully stepped into the darkness of the forest, her sword held in front of her lighting up the space. The floor was covered in broken sticks and looked to be difficult to move in. Watching the wolf and the floor she advanced. She failed to notice the wolves waiting in the trees above her.
Sandra took her eyes off the wolf for a moment to navigate a tricky part of the floor, when something heavy crashed into her and she fell to the ground, it was only by luck that she kept a hold of her sword but branches pushed into her body and then she screamed in pain.
The wolves ambushed her when she was in a good position, far enough from the entrance that escape was near impossible, and where humanoids had trouble walking due to the tree branches on the ground. They almost always fell for the one who was acting as bait, drawing the humanoid further into the forest. The wolves hidden in the trees were almost never noticed. Now they would feed again, how long had it been since they last fed? They didn’t know.
Sandra struggled to get up but another weight fell upon her pinning her to the ground, branches digging into her flesh. With a rending crunch her sword arm was ripped off at the shoulder. Sandra screamed in agony and with panic strength she forced herself up. One of the wolves fell off, the shoulder it was standing on was gone. The other bit onto her bicep to stabilise itself, and shredded her other arm as gravity pulled it down.
Sandra wobbled upright, flung the wolf off her arm, the wolf took her remaining hand with it. Screaming in agony and fear she fled the forest, stumbling over branches, the wolves biting at her heels and calves, she fell just before the edge of the forest. She tried to catch herself with her remaining arm, but she landed on a raw stump and her muscles couldn’t stop it from snapping under her weight.
The wolves pounced on her, biting into her gut, her ribs, her legs and her tail. In desperation Sandra started rolling along the ground, which was much smoother this close to the edge. She could feel her regeneration desperately trying to keep her together, but knew her health was in the low double digits, and dropping precipitously. She rolled onwards, not to do so was to accept death.
With one final scream she cleared the forest, and wolves stopped. She sighed and lay on the ground, watching them wearily, waiting for her regeneration to stop the bleeding.
Name: Sandra
Race: Wolfkin
Str: 35
Agi: 142
Vit: 35
Int: 35
Soul: 35
HP: 12% Bleeding, Multiple limb loss, Organ damage
MP: full
XP: 0
Mana: 2300
Skills:
Claws
Spells:
Summon Sword
Fire Coating
Regenerate 2 (Passive)
Inventory:
47,952 small bronze coins
Equipment: None
Sandra desperately tried to keep herself from going into shock. She was safe from the wolves here, but there were dodo’s about, and one was coming towards her warily. She willed the regeneration to focus on her legs, she needed to be able to run, she had to survive this. She felt it’s effect change and her legs started getting better whilst the rest of her continued to bleed.
The dodo came closer, eyeing her, then it pecked into her open shoulder wound, tearing out a strip of flesh and Sandra screamed again. She scrambled, rolling over and getting to her feet, screaming more as the stump of her arm dug into the ground, but she was up now, and ran. Sandra ignored her screaming muscles and ran, to stay there was also death. The dodo pursued her, she really couldn’t run at full speed, and she could barely stay ahead of the dodo, which kept taking bites out of her when it could. She felt her health drop into single digits, but kept the regeneration focussed on her legs.
She slowly got faster and faster, and spied Thomas’s figure standing tall above the grass, she turned and ran towards him as fast as she could, screaming in pain and warning.
Thomas was happily cleaving slimes, 10 to 12 at a time if he could get a high enough concentration. He’d clear an area then pick up all the dropped loot, his strength was enough to easily wield the sword single handed now. Then he heard a strange sound. He looked to see Sandra, missing an arm, and covered in blood being chased by a fat bird. She was yelling something he couldn’t make out. He charged the bird, yelling loudly. Once Sandra had run past he swung at the bird, and there was an explosion of blood and feathers from it’s body. The dodo gave up chasing Sandra and attacked him instead. He tried to deflect but it just weaved around his sword and bit his arm. He tried to dodge but it moved with him and tore a chunk out of his bicep. He instinctively dropped his sword and ran, Sandra had reached the safe zone now and he headed to it as fast as he could.
The dodo was faster though, and shredded his t-shirt and his back. Thomas crashed through the safe zone barrier and into the stone wall, collapsing into a puddle of pain and screamed.
Name: Thomas
Race: Human
Str: 128
Agi: 1
Vit: 26
Int: 1
Soul: 1
HP: 46%, Bleeding
MP: full
XP: 60
Mana: 26
Skills: None
Spells:
Summon Sword
Inventory:
3042 small bronze coins
Equipment: None
Instead of taking shelter, Sandra saw Thomas run towards her. She ran past him, then the dodo stopped attacking. Sandra didn’t stop and ran towards the safe zone, she could see it now. She crashed onto the dirt, rolled over to face upright, and screamed as she pressed her missing shoulder into the dirt. Then she lay there, breathed, and let her regeneration work normally.
Name: Sandra
Race: Wolfkin
Str: 35
Agi: 142
Vit: 35
Int: 35
Soul: 35
HP: 5% Bleeding, Multiple limb loss, Organ damage
MP: full
XP: 0
Mana: 2300
Skills:
Claws
Spells:
Summon Sword
Fire Coating
Regenerate 2 (Passive)
Inventory:
47,952 small bronze coins
Equipment: None
She felt her health slowly tick down, but her bleeding was stopping.
Thomas ran through the barrier and slammed into the stone wall, then fell down in a heap, bleeding. She couldn’t do anything for him, her own situation was too precarious. The dodo squawked furiously, pecking at the barrier, to no avail.
Finally she stopped bleeding.
Name: Sandra
Race: Wolfkin
Str: 35
Agi: 142
Vit: 35
Int: 35
Soul: 35
HP: 2% Multiple limb loss, Organ damage
MP: full
XP: 0
Mana: 2300
Skills:
Claws
Spells:
Summon Sword
Fire Coating
Regenerate 2 (Passive)
Inventory:
47,952 small bronze coins
Equipment: None
That had been close, but she was out of danger now. So long as the safe zone held. With her breathing under control she tried talking to Thomas.
“Thanks for getting the dodo off me, are you ok?”
“No, I’m down to less than 50% health, and the bleeding won’t stop.”
“I’m at 2%, I need to lie here for a while more, can you shove your t-shirt into your major bleed point? That should help if you can.”
She felt him stir, and heard him wince as he removed his t-shirt, then he grunted in pain “That, seems to be working, thanks.”
“I highly recommend buying some form of healing when you can.”
“I’ll look into that.” Thomas looked at Sandra, somehow her bleeding had already stopped.
They both lay there, each with their own problems. The dodo gave up and returned to the flock, and the slimes moved as slimes did. The sun stubbornly refused to move across the sky.
When her health had ticked past 25%, and the organ damage tag had been removed, Sandra sat up and looked at Thomas. His t-shirt was in tatters, he was naked now, his t-shirt being used to staunch the bleeding in his arm. She assumed she would be too, her clothing was in a parlous state.
“How are you doing?”
“Better, my health is ticking up very slowly, and I’m not bleeding anymore, thanks for your advice earlier.”
“You’re welcome, thanks again for getting the dodo off me. I’m not sure I would have survived any more damage.”
“What happened to you?”
“I went into the forest, it’s a trap, and you can see the result.” She waved her missing arm at him, and the stump of her other one.
“Yeah, that seems like a horrible place, you said we have to clear level 25 to get out? That seems impossible now.”
“Not impossible, I just need to grind way better stats and more regeneration.” I can do that, dodos are pretty easy now, and you seem to be handling slimes, keep going and we’ll get there. I just got cocky and walked into a trap.”
“They set a trap?!?” Thomas was incredulous, this was worse if the mobs could think. He’d have to get much stronger, he needed to be able to one-shot dodos, then grind them forever so he could one-shot wolves.
“Yeah, and I fell for it, I feel so foolish now, I lost my sword in the forest, I’ve no idea how I’ll get it back.”
“You can’t just summon it again?”
“No, remember when I first tried a dodo, and dropped it? I had to go pick it up again. I’ve no idea how I’ll get it out of the forest, it’s death in there for me right now.”
“Oh, that sucks, I hope you work something out.”
“Thanks Thomas.”
They lapsed into silence for a bit, and Sandra’s health ticked up to 50%. Her remaining arm looked solid now, and she could see the start of a hand beginning to grow back. She could also feel her shoulder starting to repair itself. She tried casting Summon Sword again. Again she got the error message:
Error, sword is already summoned, unable to summon again.
She lay back on the ground and thought for a bit, then willed herself to unsummon her sword. She felt a chunk of mp leave her and got a message:
Sword successfully unsummoned.
Sandra sighed and relaxed back onto the dirt. She could do this, she’d heal up, then go grind 20,000 dodo’s or so, that should help some. Actually what did she need? It was 10K mana for regen 3, 15K for 4, and 20K for 5, that’s 45K mana. So she’d actually have to grind 45,000 dodos. That was doable, time wasn’t an issue here, and boredom didn’t seem to be one either.
Ashkura floated in her purple space, her chosen one had survived her first encounter with the wolves, if only just. The idiot male had decided to work towards redeeming himself. Things were progressing nicely. She hoped her chosen one would survive this, she’d been trapped here for far too long.
Sandra stood, flexing her new arm and watching her fingers flex and move. She stood in her blood stained underwear, her skirt and shirt were shredded beyond use. Thomas stood in his blood stained and tattered t-shirt.
“Are you ready?” she asked him.
“Yes, I’ll keep getting stronger and we’ll get out of this together.”
“That’s the spirit, let’s go slaughter what hurt us, make them pay!”
“Yup, and we’ll grind until we can do that.”
They stepped onto the grass together.