---Maddy---
Slimes are a unique sort of creature. They are actually an entire class of monster – with a few key traits common between all variants.
To start off with, 99% of slimes have a single elemental weakness directly opposite to their own “element”. That element makes up all of what they are and do to the detriment of everything else.
To reiterate. Fire slimes are weak to ice and to a lesser extent water. Shadow slimes are weak to light and to a lesser extent fire. And the target Maddy was aiming for – death slimes – are weak to life and healing.
This was counter to a lot of ‘normal’ monster and human affinities – typically having one side of the coin does not make you weak to the other – countering a regular monster's preferred affinity will momentarily neutralize it but nothing more. This has led to the theory that slimes are nothing more than a concentrated lump of their affinity. ‘zeroing them’ by turning them into ‘pure’ mana killed them by scrubbing what they are out of existence.
In exchange for – or perhaps ‘because of’ that weakness, slimes are some of the most resilient creatures around. They are one of the only monsters that are 100% immune to all other sorts of damage – in fact the affinity book Maddy read this fact in claimed this trait – nearly 100% immunity – was what makes a slime, a slime. If a creature has 100% immunity to a single element it should be considered part slime.
The reason for the all-encompassing name – ‘slime’ – was pretty simple. Other than stone slimes and other physical variants – those are solid, usually immobile, nearly invincible blocks… that shatter to a single child’s kick – all slimes are goopy creatures immune to physical damage.
No matter how much you slash and stab a slime, they will always reform or slide through your attack.
It is a well-known fact that unless you have the specific weakness for a slime on hand, there is literally nothing you could do to kill it.
With varying degrees of speed, affinity damage – fire slimes burning things, death slimes necrotizing things – and intelligence, slimes exist on a spectrum between pest and deadly killer.
Now, the reason Maddy wanted to kill one was less apparent – her affinity book simply stated slime cores sold for a lot. From what she could tell after reading the entry in her ‘nest – and minor bestiary of each – book’, the core had something to do with how slimes perceived the world.
Slimes without a core were usually mindless, randomly wandering, masses of goop. Slimes with a core could somehow see their surroundings and more importantly threats in their surroundings – they were instinctively able to sense if a creature was stronger or dangerous to them.
Catching one is probably a rare enough feat to warrant an achievement.
If they are so valuable, they might be useful to keep for myself as well.
…
“Catch that ball of money!” Maddy shouted dashing towards the ‘probably a death slime’.
With a silent jolt it began running – moving surprisingly fast as it slid through the bush and across the spiky ground without slowing down.
Surprisingly fast – it was like watching a turtle run after being told your whole life they were slow.
Something that shapeless should not be moving that quickly.
Maddy awkwardly ran through the grass, her feet stamping up and down – occasionally breaking strands below her and kicking them forward.
Dimly she could sense her friends right behind her. Distantly she could hear what was probably another bull or monster crashing their way.
She held her scythe to her right side – leaning ever so slightly to the left to balance correctly. Despite pushing herself as hard as she could, her prize was getting away.
One of the reasons slimes were so valuable was due to their difficulty in catching them – most slimes liked to hide in dangerous environments they were immune to. The middle of a volcanic wasteland was the book’s example – basking in the heat and flames that drove predators away.
That got messed around a bit with monster nests and their somewhat unnatural environments – the fact that this nest occasionally created them despite being mostly tanks was a prime example of an exceptions to the ‘rule’.
Maddy ran around a bush the slime had simply glommed through – then spotted it over a hundred feet further ahead.
She pushed herself further as it disappeared into another bush – crossing the distance as fast as physically possible with her running speed and the unstable ground.
…there was nothing on the other side of the bush. She couldn’t see it hiding in the bush.
…the slime was gone.
Maddy slowed. “Dammit!” She cursed – turning she spotted her two friends coming to a halt right behind her.
Both seemed less winded than her – their different body foundations coming in play? Or am I just this out of shape?
“Sorry, it’s gone.” Maddy sighed gesturing around at the emptiness.
“What was that thing?” Jess spoke squinting in the direction it had glommed.
“It’s a valuable target. I wanted to catch it to figure out why it was so expensive – or sell it”
“Ah, well that’s fine. There will be plenty of them in the future –”
“A nest like this with an easier environment and having a slime specifically designed for me – that won’t happen again. Its rare here too! We could spend hours without finding another one.”
“…or other ways to make money. We can stay here a bit longer? Try and find another one? Box in that one?”
“I feel a bit guilty about leaving the caravan for too long. It feels like we are abusing our position as ‘adventurers’.”
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“I could have used that core for my capstone.”
“I’m sorry, well we can always find you –“ Maddy paused.
There was a 4th person standing beside them.
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---James---
James slowly regained his strength while resting. A few minutes was all he needed to sit up and start feeling better, but that was far from enough to feel good as new.
He was missing his arm. His whole arm. It was…just not there anymore.
It hadn’t fully sunk in when he had been desperately struggling to survive, but now that he had a moment to rest it was all he could think of.
How do I fix this? How do I get it back? I know eating regenerating monsters can help heal you…but can it regrow a whole lost limb?
…revival is possible. In comparison to that, regenerating a lost limb is a parlor trick.
James suddenly realized he was feeling sorry for himself and stood up. It was understandable – it was always understandable the times he ended up wallowing in emotions…every period of him being ‘depressed’ could be directly linked to bad things outside of his control happening to him.
If I focus on this, it will happen again. I need to get better at basic survival.
Take it one step at a time.
James didn’t stop to think about how healthy of a mindset that was – instead he just moved.
As he stepped forward, he distributed his ‘free’ stats. An even split of all three types. His power went through his eyes – he needed to see danger before it appeared. His speed went to his legs – being able to outrun enemies was the way to go.
His defense went to his bloodstream. He couldn’t bleed out at this point he had come too far.
It was a defensive split but one he liked for the future.
Grabbing a particularly sharp rock James left the pool behind – winding his one arm around and around like a baseball pitcher. Until he figured out a better thing to do, he was going to find a life based monster and eat it. If that didn’t work, he would do it again.
As simple as it was, it sounded like a plan.
…
James’s hunted – everything was harder with a single arm. Surprise surprise. Don’t wallow.
He killed several small creatures of different sizes and ate bits of their flesh raw. An hour into the day he was incredibly lucky – he found red flowers that burst into flame when smashed and spit on.
He held off on cooking most of his meals – he didn’t know what his chances of killing a Firestalker were with one arm – but he still kept a group of the flowers in his pocket. They only seemed to alight when hit with water – so unless he went swimming again or bled on the pocket or got too sweaty…okay it wasn’t the safest spot for them but leaving them behind was worse.
He would rather accidentally catch himself on fire than try to make a fire without tools and one arm.
James consumed – raw creatures and finally a few badly cooked ones once he found himself unable to continue. He didn’t care for taste – nearly everything tasted absolutely awful – he just cared about survival. He only vomited a creature up once – something that burned that much on the way down had to have been poisonous.
He hid from any monster bigger than him – size wasn’t everything but it was still a good indicator… and even if it wasn’t nighttime he didn’t like his chances.
Once or twice he found a critter that was particularly hard to kill and got excited.
There was a purple vole thing he was forced to hold down with a knee and bash with a rock for nearly 10 minutes that made him think he had found one – and it had actually worked a bit! The stump of his flesh growing out slightly to the middle of his forearm…
But sadly he couldn’t find more of them.
The one positive for the experience was growth.
It seemed like the system really liked him fighting one handed. It really really liked him fighting one handed – even though most of the creatures he killed were weak enough they shouldn’t have given him anything… by noon he had gained over two dozen stats spread between his arm and legs.
Two monster hunter achievements with specific numbers at 20 and 40 – considering they restarted and weren't stacking based on the one from the tutorial they were zone specific?
🤠 Achievement get: Monster hunter I. (uncommon)
Description: Kill 20 different breed of monster.
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Stat: +3 free body power.
🤠 Achievement get: Monster hunter 2. (rare)
Description: Kill 40 different breed of monster.
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Stat: +4 free body power.
…Both distributed to the muscles in his chest after he decided he was becoming too lopsided in the one arm.
Two monster eating achievements.
🍖 Achievement get: Monster gourmand 1. (rare)
Description: For eating 20 different monsters you killed – waste not want not.
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Stat: +6 stomach poison resistance.
🍖 Achievement get: Monster gourmand 2. (unique)
Description: For eating 40 different monsters you killed – waste not want not.
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Stat: +8 stomach poison resistance.
Stat: +1 free body defense.
That defense being added to his as-of-yet untouched throat, to help stuff go down ever so slightly better.
Maybe because of how focused he was – maybe just because of his last meal – but James felt something faint change as soon as he distributed that last point. Something was different. He was different somehow.
…what that 'difference' was he couldn’t tell and ignored in favor of surviving.
James learned a strange sort of fighting style. His battles were short and quick and usually involved 'power shooting a stone at something on its own, then rushing forward and curb stomping it as fast as he could.
Peak hunting Strat.
Sometimes he would pick up the rock again and bash the monster to bits with it if it survived his first assault.
Once or twice, he would hit something that would turn and chase him – James only realizing after the fact how strong it was.
And then again. Something changed. This time with the environment instead of his body.
James was stalking a bird that looked somewhat like a peacock with leaves for feathers when he noticed the surroundings were different – they had changed more than usual the sharp relief between biomes unnatural.
The ground was sticky and covered in a strange goo. It was green and spread over a wide area – curious James crept into the belly of the beast so to speak.
Careful not to slip James continued walking until he found the source of the destruction – a man standing in the midst of carnage.
The first human James had seen in the badlands so far – instantly making him raise his guard.
A part of him wanted to leave right away – but he was curious despite himself.
At the man’s feet, a dozen monsters were laid in a neat line. Each were killed in a similar manner – a single hole in the head or chest or bulbus weak spot.
James walked towards the man who waved him over like they were in the midst of a park laughing lightly.
“Hey! Come check out what I just shot! Come! Come! Look at this!”
At the man’s feet a mound of green slime lay and in his arm, an emerald gem sat.
“Look what I just dug out of the critter below me! It’s a slime core! Come! Come look this was a great kill – super hard to shoot correctly but a couple finger bullets did it in just fine.”
James crept forward like a stray cat – [haste] ready to activate and wisk him away at a moment's notice.
What’s happening? Who’s this? Why are they so cheerful and why are they so nonchalant about being here? Aren’t they afraid of calling more monsters towards them?
I don’t know what’s happening.