3. Floor 1 - Of Course It’s Slimes

After purchasing some rations with the meager scraps of money we had left, we headed over to the Ascension portal. Like usual, it wasn’t guarded, though there were a few layabouts and gang members sharking around, probably waiting for some poor, half dead bastard to exit the portal with a cart full of goods. Jumping an Awakened was almost always a bad idea, but ‘almost never’ were pretty good odds of succeeding when the alternative was slowly starving to death.

Ignoring the lingering scavengers, we walked straight up to the portal archway and into the swirling blue and purple magical veil. Don’t show fear. No hesitation. No weakness. Just walk in like you have a plan and hope not to attract too much attention.

As my foot collided with the portal, everything went a bright white for an instant. The world spun violently, then I was in a grassy meadow. It was probably a pretty peaceful meadow, once upon a time. Grasslands sloping so gently that it was only barely noticeable flanked a burbling stream. The wind fluttering the leaves of a few oak trees in the distance.

Yep. It was probably quite the peaceful sight, once. Now, it was all an intense, acidic green. The entire floor, not just the ground, was covered in slimes. The little buggers were only about a cubic foot in size apiece, but there were so many of them that even the trees were weighed down with globs of green slimes. You couldn't even fit a spoon between them, they were packed so tightly.

The portal we stepped out of was still behind us, a swirl of colors filling a stone archway. A dark stone circle extending about a foot out around the 6-foot wide archway was the only spot in sight devoid of slimes.

Thwain’s arm snaked out, grabbing hold of Pyro as the latter stumbled forward.

“Woah, there, buddy!” Thwain said. “Not right yet.”

Pyro smiled sheepishly. “Shit’s got me dizzy,” he said, nodding towards the portal.”

“Good catch,” I told Thwain. “Ok, time to test. Thwain, gun me.”

The Gunner obliged, passing me one of the three guns that he had conjured. I fiddled with it a bit before signaling to Pyro, who promptly covered his body with his earthen armor just in case.

I took aim, pointing the gun towards the nearest slime almost perpendicularly to the ground, making sure not to angle the shot to hit any other slime. I took a deep breath, then pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The bullet passed straight through the slime, shattering it into motes of light. The projectile continued downwards and struck the stone encircling the portal, splintering off into pieces and shooting into the swarm.

The entire floor seemed to freeze. Then, a few dozen slimes surged forward, crossing the invisible safe haven line.

“Plan C,” I yelled, unloading all of my bullets into the oncoming horde. At the sixth shot, the pistol dissolved into smoke.

Pyro stood protectively in front of us while Thwain dual wielded his pistols, eradicating swathes of slimes with each shot. Within moments, we were out of bullets. Pyro stomped and thrashed, throwing slimes back as we retreated.

A slime slammed into my leg right before I hit the portal. The exposed skin around my ankle burned and sizzled as I reached forward and poked the swirling mass of blue and purple magic. The world spun, then I was back in the Slums. My leg hurt like hell. I could still walk on it, but the skin was raw and blistered.

Thwain appeared next to me, followed by Pyro a few seconds later. As Pyro emerged, already having shed his earthen armor, I noticed a few people retreat slightly. I hadn’t even noticed them approach.

We exchanged glances. Pyro grunted and flicked his head in the direction of the city gates. Thwain and I nodded and headed out. I tried not to limp as the pain around my ankle flared. The other two compensated by putting on a little extra swagger.

We decided not to go back to the shack, worried that we were being followed. Instead, we headed in the other direction, following the lazy river of sludge until we arrived at what used to be called a lake.

We rounded the lake, finding rocks to lean against so that we could face the way we came. Then, we discussed the expedition into Floor 1. My injuries would heal within a few days. The two others were unharmed. Pyro, even after being mobbed by slimes, hadn’t been injured in the slightest. At worst, he had felt warmer in places where the slimes had held on the longest.

I focused, checking my inner Bestiary.

It appeared as a book, opening in my vision. Pages flipped quickly until settling on a section seemingly at random. Green ink smeared the page.

[https://i.imgur.com/GFbfhBd.png]

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Bestiary entry: Green slime selected.

Soul strength: 21%. Collect more essence to increase soul strength.

I read the info to the others.

“21% of what?” Pyro asked.

“Maybe until you can summon a slime?” Thwain guessed.

“Maybe,” I hedged. “Let’s test it out. We have to see what we have to work with, after all.”

I focused on my class and on my Summon skill. My Bestiary appeared again, turning to the same Green slime page. Prompted by my skill, I reached into the book and grabbed hold of… Something. It squiggled and writhed. As I dragged it out of the Bestiary, I felt energy leave my body. Was it mana? Probably. The more I pulled, the more was pulled from me. Then, with a pop, a small green slime appeared in front of me. The energy in my hand was siphoned to the monster as it sat there. Just a lime green semi-translucent blob blinking both eyes at me.

“Booyah!” Pyro yelled as he punted the slime with an earth-encrusted foot. It vaporized instantly, leaving no trace of its existence.

“Really, Pyro?” I asked. “You couldn’t wait just two more minutes?” I had a lot of experimenting to do and I didn’t know how often I could summon a slime.

“My bad, Théo. Got carried away. I’m still on an adrenaline rush from Floor 1. No loot or skill progress on my end, by the way,” he said. “At least I helped figure that part out.” He grinned almost sheepishly.

“Yeah, yeah. Just don't nuke the next one,” I said. “You should keep an eye out in case someone followed us,” I warned. “Wouldn’t put it past any of those sharks to come see if they can catch us off guard.”

“Sharks?” Pyro laughed. “More like stray cats, but I get ya. I’ll go ‘sit on a rock’ and leave you to it.” He headed off to find a better vantage point to see the path that we had taken to get to the lake.

With that settled, I tried summoning again. I reached into my Bestiary and tried to grab hold of the energy within. This time, it slipped out of my hands when I tried grabbing it. I tried a few times to surprise the glob of energy, to go slowly, to hold my hand really still. Nothing worked. Finally, I tried using a bit of the energy that I had felt when I summoned my last slime. I grabbed what I was pretty sure was mana and sent it into my hand. It felt like shoving a pile of molasses with a shovel and into a jar. My control was really clumsy, but it got the job done.

Mana literally in hand, I reached back into the Bestiary and grabbed for the slime. I gripped the slime’s energy in a firm fist and dragged it out of the book. More mana drained from my body and into the monster, leaving me feeling weak. But, alas, I had conjured another slime. Or was it just summoned? I didn’t really know if there was a difference. Maybe Thwain would know.

The slime sat there, identical to the last, save for a slight reduction in size.

“By the Tower, Pyro, what did you do?” I hissed under my breath. I resisted rolling my eyes. I didn’t want my summon to think I was annoyed at it. Well, I didn’t want it to know, since I was kind of annoyed. Did it remember that it got splatted? Having to actually care about a summoned monster’s feelings felt weird. Like, I summoned you, why does it matter where or how? Then again, if the slime remembered being punted out of existence by Pyro, it might remember skills or tactics if I can manage to teach it anything.

I looked my slime over. I was sure it was smaller than the last summon, and it was definitely smaller than the slimes on Floor 1. Maybe a little less than a quarter of the size, which really didn’t bode well for its combat utility. I reached over and poked it with my index finger. It was warm, at best. Not the sizzling or burning of the slime that had attacked me. Why was it smaller, though? I checked my Bestiary and sighed. Either the summoning process or its death had reduced its soul strength to 10.5%. Literally cut in half from what it was before.

Ok, so percentage definitively determined size. Got it. Also, I’d have to tell Pyro and Thwain to watch out for my summons. Losing half of my progress to a stray bullet or boot would suck.

I started testing my slime’s abilities by giving it directions. It could do the basics: hop, attack, retreat, flank, hide. I tried willing it to move, but it seemed to only respond to verbal commands, which was unfortunate. On the other hand, it didn’t seem to be decreasing in size as time went on, so that was good. After about an hour of testing various things, it showed no signs of disappearing. I decided to try something a little different. Searching through my bag, I found some dried rations.

“Catch,” I called out, before throwing the piece of jerky in the air. The slime scrunched up slightly, then shot up, intercepting the food midair. The piece of dried meat seemed to bob within the slime, slowly disappearing as it digested its food. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or not, but when it was finished eating the jerky, the slime seemed a little larger. I checked my Bestiary to see if there were any changes. The spectral book unfurled in front of me and I read the text within.

[https://i.imgur.com/GFbfhBd.png]

Bestiary entry: Green slime selected.

Soul strength: 10.7%. Collect more essence to increase soul strength.

I was right! It had actually gone up from eating food. I scrambled around, trying to get it to eat other stuff. I tried everything from wooden planks to moss to scraps of cloth. From what I could tell, it only ate meat, which wasn’t fantastic as meat was the most expensive food in the Slums. Then again, it was reassuring that I had found a way to train my summon without fighting.