Caeileera

Luckily, at the time we had more immediate concerns than the potential existence of continent-spanning cabals capable of instant communication. One of those was the large and dark cave the corridor we were walking down exited to. The chamber was strewn with stalactites and stalagmites and the air was almost unbearably damp and smelled of decomposing leaves. There were two exits from the cavern - a dark corridor in front of us and… something I couldn't quite see to the right, though I noticed that there was… some weird viscous substance leading to that entrance.

A hive?

‘Radios on,’ Lilyth said.

‘What’s up?’ I asked as we readied the devices.

‘I want to go and scout out what's behind the entrance covered in webbing or whatever that is.’

Aki, whom I just remembered couldn't see what I could, asked:

‘Could you please explain what's going on?’

After we described what was in the chamber, my blue-haired cutie said:

‘We’re not going into the spooky room.’

‘Wasn’t planning on heading inside,’ Lilyth explained. ‘I just want to check if something that can eat our faces is there. If it sees us as we are sneaking towards that corridor… our faces will get eaten.’

I hate how much sense she makes here.

So, with really heavy hearts, we agreed on Lilyth's idea with certain modifications.

‘I hate it,’ Ren muttered while we were waiting for our jelly to complete the first prong of the plan.

‘Hate what?’ Aki asked. ‘Plenty of things to hate here.’

‘The wait. And how Lilyth puts herself in so much danger for us. Again. And this place.’

‘I agree with you on all three and more.’

We were sitting in the corridor a bit further from the entrance, as we didn't want whatever was hiding in the darkness to overhear us.

‘Check, check, check,’ Lilyth's whisper came from the speaker of my radio.

Aki turned off hers to minimise the noise and conserve power.

‘This is Caei,’ I responded quietly. ‘Over.’

‘The exit corridor is clear. Should I scout out where it leads? Over.’

I looked at Aki and Ren. We didn't consider that before. They both nodded.

‘Make it quick. Over.’

‘We need to somehow get more of those,’ Ren sighed.

I told her about what we discussed with Lilyth.

‘There’s an elven Magitek engineer in Ror-Bhyk,’ she responded. ‘She might be able to help us. On the cheap too.’

‘Why?’ Aki asked.

‘She got tricked into working for the Ghosts. They are a rival organisation to the family business. Kojiro was trying to recruit her for his own purposes…’

‘She’s got shit luck people-wise, it seems,’ Aki whispered.

‘Yeah,’ Ren laughed. ‘I think I am hogging the best three people in Ror-Bhyk and it is only downhill from there.’

‘I think Lilyth can hog you if you ask her nicely enough,’ Aki laughed.

Ren went red-faced and said:

‘S-she said she wasn’t interested in hogging anyone right now.’

‘That means you are going to need to be very persuasive,’ I teased her.

‘B-b-ut… I mean… she… I… you… I mean…’

I had to bite my tongue then not to start laughing.

‘We’re just messing with you, don’t worry,’ I quickly said. ‘But you know… if you need a good hogging it can probably be arranged.’

‘Yup,’ Aki smiled.

I know we are joking… but why do I want Lilyth to say no to this? And why is it her I’m jealous for and not Ren? Or is it that while I inherited the love the other-me had for Rennie, but me-me has fallen head over heels for this stupid jelly of mine? At times I am grateful for Leera’s memories… at others… they are a curse.

One realisation dawned on me then.

Is this why I am… two different people depending on whether Lilyth and Aki are around? Their closeness makes it easier for me to suppress Leera’s influence on me?

So I knew what Leera wanted. And what did I want?

To be with Lilyth.

I didn't mind Aki and Ren being part of the equation. I loved the pipsqueak. I loved Ren. But I LOVED Lilyth - written in capital letters and with a heart instead of an o.

And that thought made something inside of me click for the first time.

I really feel whole now.

Lilyth

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It could have been my frayed nerves but as I traversed the corridor I felt watched. Plus I kept hearing things, or rather… there were changes in silence. It’s hard to describe, but imagine the sounds in the room travelling a certain way one minute and then slightly shifting the next one. I probably wouldn't even noticed it if I wasn’t in utter silence, as thanks to [Silent Step] I was able to move quietly.

As weird as it is to admit it - I wish I could have my Tenebral Slimeling body back for like… an hour. Whatever was trailing me wouldn't be to pull any bullshit on that one. Assuming there is something to begin with.

I suspicion was growing inside me that there was… but I wasn't quite sure yet.

That was until I reached the split in the corridor.

This will be a choice we will have to make when we all get here.

I don't think my unwanted companion expected me to stop here as rather than keep roughly the same distance it… stumbled a bit before coming to a stop.

Gotcha, motherfucker.

I pretended to consider which way I should be going and listened for movement. At the same time, I summoned a knife into a hand where I thought it wouldn't be able to see it.

Then it happened.

A soft movement towards me. A brief exhalation of air.

I deactivated [Silent Step] and tried activating [The Swiftness of the Wind]. It worked, which confirmed that I had better chances of using magic when I was limiting myself to one thing at a time.

This is going to suck, I thought as I struggled to pinpoint the location of my ambusher. When I was mostly certain, I rapidly turned around and threw my dagger toward them.

A roar of pain told me I struck true and a tall creature materialised in front of me.

Actual invisibility? Fuck. That's bad.

There must have been still some magical effect on it as it looked like a roughly humanoid multi-coloured somewhat two-dimensional patch of screen distortion. It was as if a TV had lost all coherence and instead of your favourite show, you could just see parabolic strips. Its sharp-looking claws were very real though and had the legally-mandated number of dimensions, which only gave me a bigger headache when I tried to process what exactly I was looking at.

I don’t even… what the fuck…

There was one easy solution to that issue. Since I couldn't identify what it was, I would have to just make sure it self-identified as dead. I summoned both of my knives and leapt towards it. By then, the creature had mostly recovered from the shock of being wounded and lunged at me as well. Even looking at its movements broke my brain, not that I had one, because the creature would flicker between two and three dimensions as it moved. It would be perfectly “normal” as it took a step or moved an arm, only to turn flat when standing still.

So you have to “exist” when you move. No wonder the Huntress wanted to nope the fuck out of here. How do you kill something that doesn't… isn't… fucking hell…

Needless to say, my confusion caused a massive lapse of concentration for me, leading to a painful gash on my unprotected stomach.

FUUCK!

I needed to focus. How did I wound it the last…

Oh. I couldn't see it.

So… with some trepidation, I closed my eyes and let my other senses guide me. I heard the creature lunge at me, and “felt” the trajectory it would take. It reminded me of my mad dash in Akh'ret's Mercy. The Huntress pulled off the same thing.

Was I always capable of that then? My thoughts raced as I dove out of the way.

I wasn't quite fast enough, but, luckily, the creature's claws harmlessly slid across what was left of my armour.

Yes. I need to get it fixed.

Hearing where the monster… well the other monster landed, I quickly pounced towards it with my knives ready.

Let’s see who the actual predator here is, bitch.

I slashed at where I thought the whatever was and its roar told me I struck true. So, I followed up. Once. Twice. Each stab and slash was punctuated by shrieks of pain.

Finally, my blades only met air and milliseconds later I heard something hit the ground. Not taking any chances, I stabbed downwards and heard the beast’s final yelp and the sounds of its shuddering.

I opened my eyes and saw that the vague two-dimensional outline of the creature's body was now slowly dissipating on the ground. I spat at it, which rewarded me with it returning to being three-dimensional again.

A fitting final “fuck you.”

Genuinely curious, I checked my notifications. I saw that there were actually two new ones.

Level 14 Distorted Sprite has been slain.

You have received 1400 experience points (3200/7000 total experience points progress to level 14)

I groaned in pain when it hit me why the creature was named that way, and moved on to the other notification.

New Trait Unlocked: [Instinctive Fighting]

Type: Racial

Rank: Novice

Effects:

* Unlocks purchasing of abilities that further enhance senses and embrace your nature as a monster

Description: Your identities as a human and a slimeling are slowly beginning to merge. To put it bluntly - you have accepted that you are no longer human.

I have been reliant on the capabilities of my body more and more lately, haven't I? Hell… I wished to have the Tenebral body once again.

More notifications flooded me then, all of them regarding abilities and traits allowing me to further embrace my monstrous nature and reject my humanity. There were dozens to choose from, for example:

New Purchasable Ability Discovered: [Rapid Shapeshifting]

New Purchasable Ability Available: [Enhanced Acoustic Processing]

New Purchasable Ability Discovered: [Visual Acoustic Prediction]

New Purchasable Ability Discovered: [Active Acoustic Location]

As I had to warn the others about the sprites or whatever, I decided to go through them and figure out my budding identity crisis later. I was about to dismiss the notifications and radio Caei when one of them caught my eye.

[Enhanced Acoustic Processing]?

Ability: [Enhanced Acoustic Processing]

Type: Racial

Duration: 1 minute

Description: Allows you to improve the keenness of your hearing by using mana. It will make locating things easier, but I don’t recommend using that with shrieklins around. It will hurt. A lot.

Cost to learn: 1 Perk Point

Then I’ll become the monster… I thought and bought the ability.

I immediately deactivated [The Swiftness of the Wind] and turned the [Enhanced Acoustic Processing] on. I hadn't noticed any changes at first, so I walked over to the wall and tapped it with the hilt of my knife. I swore I could track how the sound spread around the tunnel.

Fuuuuck. That's good.

I didn't have time to play around with myself though. Praying I didn't dawdle too long, I deactivated my new toy and turned on the radio.

‘Caei?!’ I asked, urgency in my voice. ‘Are you guys fine?’

‘Yes,’ came the response. ‘Did something happen? Uh.. over.’

‘Got attacked by an invisible monster. Watch out. Those fuckers are tricky. On my way to you. Over.’

I didn't know how to describe those things to her, so I didn't bother.

I waited for her response. And waited. But it never came. Panic creeping in, I shouted into the radio again. And again. But no response came. What did happen, however, was a brief sensation of something lunging at me.

FUCK! I thought as I felt the claws of another sprite sink into my back.

Hold on, girls! I’ll be there soon.