System Message: Analyze successful. The Slime Princess is a monster from worlds beyond Tumultua. She possesses the ability to transform, limiting damage from most attack sources.
Her entry was bare compared to a typical entry. On second thought, Jay decided he was better off not attacking the first boss alone. The woman—no, boss monster—looked up at him, black hair falling into her eyes, which were just as green as the dress she was wearing. For a moment, she stared but broke her silence as she walked forward slowly.
“Hello, Monster Hunter,” she said. “It was people like you who trapped me long ago.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” Jay shot back, his hand drifting to the handle of his crossbow. When his fist closed around it, the Slime Princess stopped in place.
“I can see that. And yet, you still intend to meet me with violence.”
“That’s not what I want. I want to get to the end of the dungeon. There’s supposed to be something for me here. I’m here to kill monsters, not princesses.”
The woman started to stroll forward once again. Jay let her. He didn’t want to fight her, although he suspected he would need to. Most dungeons couldn’t be finished without defeating every boss.
He also knew he was unlikely to succeed against a boss alone. He needed to stall to reunite with his party. His eyes slid off his opponent, searching the room.
“You haven’t asked me about my father,” the Slime Princess said, soft-spoken but firm. Her voice was like the bubbling of a brook, soothing but wild. “You know I am a princess, even though you claim this place is foreign to you. And yet you have not asked about my father, the king.”
“I haven’t seen anything about a king,” Jay responded lazily, drawing out each word to eke out more time.
“You have not. The king is not here. I was stolen from my lands by hunters of monsters. People the same as you. They trapped me here for their ends.” Her bright eyes flashed with more profound emotion before her voice became plaintive as she asked: “You object to their treatment of me?”
As she talked, Jay took in the details of the room, making sure to meet her eyes every few seconds. He needed to avoid suspicion and keep tabs on her to ensure she didn’t make sudden moves. But Jay was getting frustrated: the room was the same as it had appeared. With the stone slab in place, it was just floor-to-ceiling stone. It looked utterly sealed and empty.
“I object,” Jay agreed, giving up on the room to focus on her Highness—he should maybe ask about her name. “I’ve never trapped anything, monster or otherwise.”
He needed a different tack, some proof of goodwill. In desperation, Jay poked Cuddles, still asleep on his shoulder. The pet hissed in defiance but blearily raised his head to stare at the woman before letting out a rumbling growl. Cuddles wasn’t a fan of hers either, but Jay marched on anyway. “Look at this fella. He’s a Strogian Death squirrels, and we’re friends. You and I can be friends, too.”
The woman smiled, the sadness evident in her eyes. She was only a half dozen yards away from Jay now. “You assure me of my safety by waving your creature of evil in front of my eyes. I could never be friends with you. I still believe what you say is true. I believe you do not want to kill me. But my path is bound by the same magic trapping me here.”
She erupted into a blur of movement, far outshining the charge of the creeping slimes. Her fist sailed over Jay’s left shoulder, barely missing him as he pivoted.
After his first dodge, Jay ducked out of the way, limiting the damage to minor impacts where he could as he tried to find a position to draw his dagger. Before he could, she lunged straight for his center mass.
He threw himself to the side, successfully avoiding most of the attack. The unexpected impact caused him to lose his balance, tumbling into a roll that sent him toward the room’s edges. He leaped to his feet as soon as possible. Checking his character status, his health bar dropped 50 points, leaving him with 240 health.
That first hit wasn’t a problem, but he knew the damage only came from a basic punch. The dodge roll had surprised the Slime Princess, so he took the opportunity to draw his dagger. Jay needed to turn the tide of the fight. If he didn’t start landing attacks, he would lose the battle slowly.
“You are more slippery than I expected,” she mused, looking at him from several feet away. “Perhaps if I lose, I will be able to return home.”
As she strode forward to attack again, Jay ran to meet her, not allowing her to catch him off guard. She was still impossibly fast for what he was used to from fighting slimes in other games. He was slightly faster than the boss when he launched a series of counterattacks—an impressive feat likely only made possible by his focus on Speed.
The rare dagger suffered no damage reduction, even against the natural armor of the boss. Her flesh didn’t react like slime goo but like stabbing an average person with a dagger. It was a bit unsettling, but her desire to punch him in the face was helping quell those notions. Also, he was in a game.
She wasn’t as hardy as the Big Bad Boar. Even so, the Slime Princess seemed to be a much more skilled melee combatant. Each time he struck her, she made him pay in kind. He could not dodge the small blows landing on his shoulders or oblique muscles. She was focusing hits on areas he couldn’t defend with the dagger. He could only try to slip the attacks, and he failed as often as he succeeded.
While he managed to chip away the first quarter of her health with his slicing attacks, in exchange, she brought his health down to half. The situation was terrible and a clear indication that he would lose.
To Jay’s surprise, the Slime Princess stepped back, even while he was on the back foot. He took advantage of the respite and summoned a potion from his inventory, restoring his health to maximum.
Slime coated the boss, dripping down her skin to collect in her palms. It reformed, taking the shape of a mitt around her hands, swirling around to fill the entire palm. There was no slime residue elsewhere on her body.
“Monster Hunters are meant to be able to handle any battle, even as the fight changes around them,” she said. “How will you handle this?”
The fighting started anew. Jay blocked the Slime Princess’s opening flurry of attacks, meeting each punch with his dagger. Globs of the slime clung to his blade, but the rare material cleansed itself. The slime simply slid from the metal to the ground. He struck back, careful not to overextend himself. The slash cut into her arm, which didn’t have a slime coating to block the attack. Another portion of her health fell off.
He was starting to find the pattern of attacks the boss was following. She was more skilled than Jay, certainly, but lacked adaptability. There was a pattern. There was always a pattern. He managed to avoid damage as he sliced away at her remaining health.
The Slime Princess’s face screwed up in concentration, melting to anger as she sensed the tide of the battle turning. She continued the same pattern of attacks as if she had been trained in a specific kata. With her strikes memorized, he would easily be able to win. It was just a matter of time.
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As her health reached half, Jay felt confident about his impending success, and the Slime Princess made him pay for it.
His focus was on her fists, where all the danger came from. She continued to punch him. The flurry increased in speed, but Jay was still faster. He knew she was about to move her attack wide, so he slipped to the side, lunging for her midsection. The Wild Strike ability charged on his dagger, and he stabbed for her abdomen.
She didn’t strike wide.
The Slime Princess punished his overextension. She stepped to the side, faster than before, and struck him in the back hard. It was the first time the slime mittens landed an attack on him. The slime stuck to his skin, circumventing his armor, leaving Cuddles hissing angrily at the intrusion. He clung onto Jay’s shoulders, deeply unhappy, as Jay sunk to the ground.
System Message: The Slime Princess’s Strength exceeds your Balance. Her “Disorient” attack has succeeded; you are knocked prone and stunned for five seconds.
System Message: The Slime Princess’s “Hands of Slime” debuff has successfully afflicted you. This debuff will lower your Speed by 20% for the remainder of the combat encounter.
The boss stepped back again. Jay was on his stomach, unable to move. He felt groggy. Slime coated her skin again. This time it didn’t collect anywhere. The slime expanded in layers and quickly grew across her body. Before Jay’s wits returned, the Slime Princess was coated entirely in a bubble of slime, now finally resembling the creeping slimes he had seen in the last room.
Jay painfully pushed himself to his feet, his vision still a little blurry as he tilted his head. The slime slid over the ground, trying to bridge the space between them.
It took a minute for him to realize that he wasn’t the only one affected by her last move. The boss was also much slower than before, which offered him the opportunity to formulate a new plan. The first step, he decided as he retreated backward, was activating his Analyze ability on the new form. The creature chased after him but moved at a third of the speed as her original form.
System Message: Analyze Success! Slime Princess, Princess of Slime Entry: Unlike Creeping Slimes, created by runic casters, the Princess is summoned from the Land of Slime, found in a different world. As a creature from beyond Tumultua, she is considered highly dangerous. However, as a true slime creature, she suffers from a weakness to fire.
With the expanded entry, the new plan came to Jay immediately. He needed to focus on his crossbow and avoid her deadly melee attacks. He could keep out of distance while firing as long as his Rapid Fire ability was active. He could kite the creature until the ability recovered—throwing whatever attacks possible while maintaining distance. As misfortune would have it, the necessary ability was still on cooldown for two minutes.
As he jogged away, storing his dagger, he pulled his crossbow in front of him. He checked the bolt in the chamber, seeing he was lucky enough to have loaded a smoldering bolt while fighting with the slimes. Looking over his shoulder, he paused and turned around. There was enough distance between him and the creature to feel safe. He took another potion while he watched the creature’s movements.
The creature continued to slowly wiggle forward across the stone. There didn’t seem to be any danger, but the boss had surprised him twice already. Jay was wary of another surprise attack. The pattern appeared to be a strange attack at every quarter milestone of health. The most critical moment would be when only 25% of her health remained.
He used his ability to charge another powerful attack using the smoldering ammunition, backing away as the Wild Strike ability powered up.
He released the bolt, which slammed into the Slime Princess’s undulating form. The blast was so powerful it nearly brought the creature to quarter health in a single blow. The compounding effect of the smoldering ammunition with the ability was potent.
The Slime Princess continued her slow trek forward, undaunted. Jay continued to retreat as he pulled the crossbow back, preparing it to load another bolt. With the crossbow spring ready, he retreated another dozen yards and pulled a smoldering bolt from his quiver. His primary attack ability wasn’t recharged, but he could blast the creature. He hefted the crossbow, aimed, and fired.
As the second bolt impacted, the slime shell seemed to harden. The Slime Princess’s health froze at a quarter—two hundred health remaining.
Jay had thought he was ready for the surprise at quarter health. He wasn’t.
The creature surged forward at unprecedented speed, barely giving him time to notice. Jay’s only recourse was to jump out of the way again, falling into an uncontrolled roll, trying to hold his crossbow above his head to avoid smashing it. As he stopped, his muscles screamed in protest, especially the arms holding up his crossbow. He groaned as he got to his feet. The move cost him a small chunk of health, meaning he could only afford a few more similar dodges.
He was starting to think his abilities were severely lacking a movement ability. Or at least something to get back onto his feet.
He was going to need Rapid Fire, after all. He took off into an all-out sprint around the circular stone room. The process was made more difficult by the trail of slime left behind by the Slime Princess in her final form. Jay wasn’t sure exactly what problems stepping on the slime would cause him; he only knew he didn’t want them.
He sprinted around the room until, more tired than ever, the ability came off cooldown. He activated the ability promptly, pausing to pull back the crossbow into the firing position. He completed the task just in time to dodge out of the way of the next surge from the Slime Princess.
He sprinted out of the way, feeling like he was trying to outrun a boulder in a movie. After two minutes of dodging surges, they weren’t challenging to understand. There were five seconds between each surge from the slime. He waited for the next one, moving out of the way. The brief moment of disorientation allowed him to load the smoldering bolt into his crossbow.
Jay fired the bolt, which struck hard on the large wobbly slime form, and continued on at a sprint. He couldn’t hesitate, or he wouldn’t be prepared for the next surge.
The strike caused flames that melted pieces of the slime off. The boss was starting to look haggard. When the next surge triggered, Jay made a now-practiced dodge while firing, knowing the last bolt would finish the job.
His assumption proved correct. The bolt burned away the slime shell of the Slime Princess’s final form. Jay watched as the woman slumped from the encasement, landing on the ground. She didn’t move. The first boss battle of the dungeon was over.
System Message: 5,000 experience gained. You have reached Level 13.
As the system message appeared on his screen, he heard the rumbling of stone on stone. The dungeon slab door opened, and his friends rushed inside.
“What happened?” Taylor Lynn demanded.
“Is that the boss?” Ken asked, pointing at the fallen form of the Slime Princess, which had reverted to the young woman Jay first met. “That’s a woman. Did you Player Kill somebody?” He stared at the body, inspecting the nameplate of the creature.
“You killed the boss by yourself?” Lester asked, picking up on things before Ken. There was a thread of interest woven into his question. The guild leader continued, “We didn’t get any experience.”
The rest of the group quieted, knowing he was there to evaluate their team and also eager to hear the answer for themselves.
“I think it all went to me when I killed her,” Jay said, trying to stay nonchalant, “but my ability set was well suited for the fight. I was even forced to use two of my three health potions.”
“Well done,” Lester said. He was still watching Jay appraisingly. After a moment, no one moved, so Jay picked up on what they were waiting for.
He moved to loot the creature. It had been easier to mask how out of breath he felt while standing still, but now he moved stiffly, trying to keep his rhythm slow and steady.
Opening the loot screen, his eyes scanned the items. There were ten crossbow bolts, as if the loot was tailored to him. There was also a hat, which from the small image on the loot screen, was another cowboy hat.
The bolts were called “slime bolts.” The ammunition added a rooting effect that would trap someone hit with the bolt in slime for two seconds.
The effect synergized well with the powers of the new cowboy hat, which sported thin green lines spider-webbing throughout the material. The cowboy hat would add a twenty percent boost to his movement speed during combat. Additionally, the item added three points to his Perception and two points to his Balance. The tradeoff was reducing his health pool by twenty.
The loss of health was more than made up for by his level gains. Jay moved his Intellect and Discipline up to ten, dumping the rest of his points into Speed.
“Tell me,” Lester said as Jay finished looting. “Did you ever play the game Tempest Stormlords?”
Jay froze, the inventory and new skills forgotten.
“There was an interesting story about a top ten player,” Lester continued casually. “He ran top raids without a guild, organizing strong unaffiliated players by himself.”
Jay could feel Taylor Lynn bristling, her mouth opening to argue before she stopped herself, thinking twice about butting into his business. After all, he had asked her to let him speak for himself.
Lester smiled beatifically before dropping the final piece into place: “Come to think of it, his name was also Jay. Would you know anything about that?”