Still staring blankly at the giant slime, it abruptly rams the tree trunk again and suddenly the tree begins tilting to one side, giving in to the power of the slime that had attacked it. I desperately grab onto the branch I was sleeping on previously as the tree starts to fall, but my grip slips on the way down, and I hit the ground, my left leg first. I let out an, "Ugh.", and the giant slime looks at me, or I assume is looking at me given the lack of eyes on it. It starts rolling towards me and I reach down to my belt loop to grab my staff, but all I grasp is fabric, my staff is gone. Panicked, I look around and see that my staff is a few feet away from me. As I try to stand up to get to the staff and simultaneously distance myself from the slime, I feel a sharp pain in my ankle, and I fall back down to the ground. Glancing at it, I can see my ankle slowly changing to a red color. 'Damn. Is it broken?'

Looking back to the slime growing ever close to me I think, 'Even without my staff, I should be able to kill it.', as I raise my right hand towards the slime and I start up my chant. "Spirits of fire, flow into my body. Rise from my mana, and grant me control over you. Fire Creation." A thick continuous flow of flames springs forth from my hands towards the slime as it still continues charging at while it is bubbling down. I start pushing myself backwards with my uninjured leg and one free arm to gain more distance from it. I begin to notice that as it is shrinking in size, it is starting to speed up. Now at a quarter of its original size, it suddenly increases speed and renews its charge towards me. I roll to the side in a panic, which canceled my spell, while the slime rams into the trunk of the falling tree that was behind me. I start up my spell again while the slime is still slightly stunned from the hit, and continue burning it down. Soon enough it evaporates into nothingness just like the first slime I had faced.

I mutter, "Personal Profile." in an attempt to open my character sheet that I saw back when my personal ability was given to me, and a familiar window appears before me once again.

Name: Ryan Mitchel Race: Human Age: 23 Sex: Male Level: 0 Stat Points: 0 Gold: 0 Titles: N/A Stats: HP:81/90 HP Regeneration: 1.1% per 5 Minutes SP:115/120 SP Regeneration: 1.1% per 5 Minutes MP: 20/130 MP Regeneration: 1.5% per 5 Minutes Critical Hit Chance: 0% Physical Resistance: 0.11% Magical Resistance: 0.15% Affliction Resistance: 0.35% Vitality: 9 Stamina: 12 Constitution: 11 Intelligence: 13 Wisdom: 15 Luck: 0 Skills: Stealth Interface Fire Creation Personal Abilities: The Curse of Cronus Afflictions: The Conquerors "Encouragement" Sprained Ankle

I look at my MP and see that through my spent MP, the slime I had just faced had around 60 HP, and I also notice I have a new affliction. 'Let's see what this "Affliction" does; "Identify."'

Sprained Ankle Affliction Rank: E Cuts HP by 10% making it unable to be regenerated. Cuts movement speed by 30%. Heals naturally after 24 hours, upon which health can be regenerated as per normal and movement speed debuff is removed. Using healing items or healing spells can speed up the recovery of this affliction. Time left until healed: 23:59:51

I remember I have that slime core and reach into my pocket to grab it, and pull it out. "Hmm. I have a healing item, but it's only a chance, and is it even the right time to use it. Well, it's dangerous to have a speed decrease when there are monsters around, so I guess I will." I then place the slightly squirming slime core into my mouth and it starts dissolving into a slightly sour liquid that starts flowing down my throat. I soon feel the pain from my ankle start to lessen. Looking back at my personal profile I see that my health has gone up to 86/90. 'Lucky.' Looking back at the countdown timer for the healing of my ankle it now displays "10:39:32".

I begin limping over to my staff lying on the ground away from me. After picking it p and placing it back in my belt loop, I look back to where the giant slime fell, and see a similar but larger slime core and two gold coins where it had died. Limping to where it is on the ground, I pick it up the trio of items and try identifying them, starting with the one of the coins.

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Gold Coin Basic Currency of the Tower of Opportunity. Touch the coin(s) and say "Claim", to have the coin(s) be absorbed and display on the personal profile.

'Does this work with my stealth interface as well. "Claim."' The coins start liquifying and flow into me. Looking back at my gold counter on my personal profile, I now see that it displays the number 2. 'I guess it does. Well, now onto the slime core. "Identify."'

Mutant Slime Core The core of a deceased mutant slime that has a small chance of dropping when it is killed.

When consumed, it has a 50% chance of granting the one who uses it 1 random stat.

'A shame that this one doesn't heal like the smaller ones, but I'll take it anyway.'

Congratulations you have gained Intelligence +1

"Huh." 'Well more MP is good. I should find some more slime cores to heal this ankle of mine. But first I'd better make a crutch to help me along the way.' I hobble towards a broken branch lying on the ground that looks like the correct length. Picking it up, I stick it under my armpit, and try it out. 'This seems to be good enough.' Looking back up to the canopy still tired from not sleeping enough, I think to myself, 'I won't be able to climb up another tree with this ankle, so I should try to find more slime cores to get healed up.' Waiting for a little bit over an hour and a half to make sure I had enough MP to deal with 2 slimes just in case, I started walking down the river once again toward that shadow of the building I see in the distance, eclipsing the morning's rising light.

***

After walking for an hour I notice a decently sized fish in the water. Stepping into the water, I slowly wade towards it and abruptly grasp it between my hands. Walking back to the shore I look around for some fallen branches, and put them into a pile. I try fruitlessly to start a fire with some of the wood I have gathered, but then facepalm. 'I'm such an idiot. I could have just used fire magic.' Using 1 point of MP I start the fire and begin grilling the fish, which I had placed onto a stick. After finishing my fish I stand up, and see a small green blob a short distance from me. "Finally." As I position myself at an adequate distance, I start chanting my spell with my staff pointed at it. It only notices me after I've started my chant, it turns to me and starts rolling towards me, but it is too little too late, as by the time it has closed half the distance towards me its health has been depleted by my spell. Looking at the ground where it died, all that is visible is just the burnt grass left over from my spell. 'I guess I can't be lucky all of the time. I guess I'll keep walking then.'

***

Two hours of water later with no new slime in sight, I crouch down and lean on a rock next to the river. Cupping water into my hands to drink, I think to myself. 'When am I going to find another one'.' Sitting for around ten minutes looking into the water I eventually stand back up, letting out a sigh I look back up an see a slime around 200 feet away. 'Nice.' As I use my crutch to help walk over to it I position myself near it and start chanting my spell, he notices me and starts rolling towards me, but just as the one I fought before, it perished after only closing half of the distance. Looking at the same area I notice that same spherical object I have been wanting lying in the grass. 'Good a slime core.' As I walk forward to pick up the slime core that was dropped, I see a second slime rolling towards me. I upright myself as quickly as possible and start my chant. I aim the fire streaming from the tip of my staff towards it, and it perishes only a scant distance from me, similarly dropping a slime core as the other slime did.

Wiping off the sweat on my forehead, I pick up both the slime cores that were lying on the ground, and subsequently swallowing them one by one. The first one causing a sharp pain in my stomach and after looking at my personal profile, it had taken 1 HP from me taking me down to 85. But after taking the second one, I got the maximum effect of healing 5 HP. Feeling the pain form my ankle disappear, I remove the crutch from armpit and test my ankle to see if it really alright. 'Nice it finally healed. Now I can finally climb back onto the tree and sleep safely. Well, relatively safely.', I think still remembering what the mutant slime did.

But suddenly I a slight rustle of the grass from behind me, followed by a burning pain in my left calf. I let out a loud cry in pain, and thought to myself, 'I messed up, didn't I?'