…Well, she was supposed to search for the last [Large Star Crystal], wasn’t she? To, uh, give it to Igor, right?
“But, but, t-treasure!”
Yes, this damn floor had too many treasures scattered around the place! The first one she found was her awesome red cloak, of course. The second one was this cool looking sword, with a golden emblem on its hilt and stuff! Sadly, she was a magic user, so swords are useless.
The third, was this cool set of armour that she found hidden behind a secret wall, which she noticed in an instant due to the uneven padding on the walls. But, speed was her main battle focus, so she had to abandon wearing it.
Fifth, was this cool laser cannon that she found by defeating an annoyingly fast laser-shooting bat. A quick [Corrosive Slime Wave] did the trick and defeated it, and this time, she did take the laser cannon, since it was cool and it worked great!
The laser cannon was, pretty much a fancy wand, that could only shoot out one spell in its entire shelf life. That spell, being a fast moving death ray that turned anything it touched into dust, including herself.
And now, the next treasure was calling out to her! Standing before her, was a giant casing of glass, with a floating orb of darkness in the centre. It looked super edgy and completely evil, but it looked cool, and she at least wanted to touch it!
We all know this is a bad idea
Surprisingly, smashing the glass casing apart was quite easy. I say easy, because she now had the laser cannon, with the added magic bonus from her red cloak. The glass just went up and, like, melted into, uh, molten glass…Yeah…
Anyways, with this, the black orb of pure darkness was ready for her taking!
Little did she know, when she went up to touch it, the orb of darkness cracked, and a stream of dark energy burst out uncontrollably. It shocked her for a bit, and she closed her eyes from reflex, since, ya know, it looked super evil and edgy. But, nothing, really happened. She opened her eyes after a while and…she was just, standing inside the black miasma.
Well, actually, this was supposed to be a test of the spirit and the mind, challenging anyone who dared to touch it with a thick miasma that would bring out their greatest fears and terrors. If one failed to challenge, their soul and body would be eaten alive, leaving nothing behind.
But, sadly for the creator of this orb thingy, Diana was a dumbass, and also someone who wasn’t really truly scared by anything. Along with the added bonus of her title as the [Soul Conqueror], consuming her soul was as impossible as Oda reviving back Whitebeard.
So, since the orb saw her as being ‘Worthy’ to accept the reward, the miasma thickened, and the surroundings around her changed.
The miasma seeped away, and she found herself standing within a corridor that seemed to extend for…forever. The wall, floor, and ceiling were a checkerboard of red and black squares, with several posters hanged up on the two sides of the walls.
It kinda reminded her of that room Soul went into every time he went into that weird dream-like place.
Anyways, she started to walk through the corridor, reading through each of the posters as she went along. Although, after a while, she realised that she just read the same poster as before, which meant that she just looped this corridor.
After she had some fun by running a never-ending marathon for a while, she decided to give it a rest and actually count how many different posters there are before they start to loop again. Some terrible mental arithmetic later,
‘Hmm…There are 15 different posters…’
And each of those posters had a different cute picture too! Alright, I’ll just list it all down:
1. A picture of her in slime form, just chibified.
2. A picture of a knife…Yeah, just that.
3. A picture of a slime ball, with, uh, mana swirling, around it?
4. A picture of a guy, also chibified, wearing a white hood while holding a dagger.
5. A picture of someone, who was bald, and also chibified, meditating.
6. A picture of…cooking utensils? Da hell?
7. A picture of a human body with some curvy lines drawn within the body. Just think that picture of a shinobi’s chakra flow from Naruto.
8. A picture of, a group of bubbles, with the weird swirling mana again.
9. A picture of a slime ball, but with green plus signs all around it.
10. A picture of her awesomely cute Dogoo army.
11. A picture of an energy symbol, that was on fire, for some reason.
12. A picture of Chibi Diana looking super scared because of, something?
13. A picture of Chibi Diana giving some food to a chibi wolf and petting it. Heh, that’s cute.
14. A picture of a collection of spears, glaives, and poles.
15. And finally! A picture of a slime ball, but oozing with some green toxic waste.
Phew, that was all of it, all of it! Man, was she tired on trying to look through every single one of them! But it was worth it, since some of them were super cute, like poster 13. Oh my God, that chibi wolf looks so cute~
Ahem, a-anyways, what’s the reason for these posters again? I mean, some are cute looking, and some look just, plain. But the rest are just…odd. Like, cooking utensils? What? Was she a chef or what?......Wait…Chef…Cooks…Cooking…! Cooking skill!
Then! Piece two and two together, and bam! She realised what these posters were representing!
That’s right, each of these posters were an illustration of her skills! And it just so happens, that her current skill set consisted of 15 different skills, and each skill had a poster that it could relate to!
…No, wait. If so, then what’s the reason to bring her here? There must be more to this place, right? She pondered so as she leaned on the wall, accidentally placing her hands over one of the posters. Then, this appeared.
[Do you wish to [Evolve] the skill [Energy Burn]? Yes/No]
“E-Eh? Uh, e-eh?”
[Evolve]…That’s what it reads, right? W-Wait, skills can evolve then?! Then…She could pick which skill she wanted to evolve, didn’t she? Wow, how generous. Oh, and, she clicked on no for that one. [Energy Burn] wasn’t something she uses often anyways. Sorry~
Does she only get one chance with this? Well, she might have two chances, but she won’t take any chances, if she uses this one on a stupid skill by accident, then, well, that’d suck. So, she thought about it carefully, weighing over which skill she preferred the most.
But, after a while, she could only come back to her roots, back to where it all began. The skill, that began her slimy journey through this landscape. The one that had carried her along, and had saved her many times. Even if she denied it at first, without any doubt, this was one of her most useful, if not, the most useful skill in her arsenal.
‘Yeah…It needs to be this one.’
[Do you wish to [Evolve] the skill [Slime Valley]? Yes/No]
“Yes please~!”
[…Payment Required. You must sacrifice two skills to proceed]
…EH? Was she reading that right? She needed to give away two different skills to evolve her [Slime Valley] to the next stage? Man, that sucks! Was what she thought when she read that, but then, another thought struck her head.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Now that she was reminded of her 15 skills, she realised just how many of them were just red herrings sitting there disguised as ‘Useful’ skills. Giving up two useless skills should be fine, in fact, that’ll free up some space, so her status screen wouldn’t be as crowded!
[[Knife Mastery] and [Energy Burn] has been selected. Do you wish to continue?]
“Count me in!”
And then, the magical moment arrived! Her two ‘useless’ skills suddenly just went *Poof*, leaving behind an odd tingling feeling in her tummy. But, the return she got was much better than those two skills!
[Slimic Sublimation]
Lv 1/25
Allows you to morph into a slime.
As a slime, all your stats are boosted by 75%
There are no longer any MP and SP penalties for staying as a slime, or when getting hit.
Density, transparency, and elasticity are all changeable factors.
You are now able to turn only some parts of yourself into a slime, but stats bonus does not apply.
As a slime, any physical damage you receive will be nullified.
You still receive 300% more damage against magical attacks.
“Your inner slime has now risen! Now, take to the world and spread your love~!”
“……Well then! That’s awesome!”
…Well, that was…quite a long list of bonuses and demerits…Damn, did this skill change quite a bit after its evolution! First, no more MP or SP lost while in slime form, and no MP or SP are taken away when hit?! That’s awesome!
Secondly, she’s able to partially turn into a slime now! Now, she a pure Slime Slime Logia fruit user! One Piece, here she comes!...Ahem.
But, well, that last line though…Well, guess it wasn’t any better than “Harness your inner slime girl and go *Kupyu~!*” or whatever. Well, she’ll just treat that as some extra flavour text, for now.
…Oh, and how was she supposed to leave now?
[Do you wish to leave?]
Ah! Speaking of leaving, that text just conveniently appeared before her eyes just as she was thinking of leaving. And she should really be leaving, since her quest that Igor gave her was still incomplete…But…She wanted to look around a bit more…
Meh, Igor can wait. Side-quests usually pretty long, so he can probably wait patiently, sit down, drink some tea, maybe talk with some of the residents of the Velvet room while he’s at it.
She’s quite interested in this room itself. Like, she was pretty sure that she just got swallowed up by a sea of black miasma, so how did she even end up here? And what or where is this place? Who created it? For what purpose? So. Many. Questions!
After fiddling around a bit, searching around for any gaps, taking down and looking behind the posters, trying to slime her way out, she found out, that she could do absolutely nothing. This corridor was completely foolproof!
So, with a heavy sign and a shrug, she called out for that [Do you wish to leave?] text again, and said yes. And just like MCU’s Bifrost, a beam of rainbow light came down on her, and took her out.
The thing is…
“…Where the hell is this?!”
W-Wait a sec, this wasn’t on the floor she was just sat. Heck, she didn’t even know if this was Tartarus or not! This was more like a Minecraft Stronghold! The walls were built out of stone bricks, some moldy, some cracked, and most are humid and wet.
There was some lighting thankfully, with a torch or two in each room. The layout was, similar, to the floors of Tartarus, with many different rooms that connected to one another. But the atmosphere, and the feel of this place was just…eerie. Not that Tartarus was any less eerie, but this place was even more so.
And then, she heard…g-giggles, coming from, somewhere.
‘Oh…Oh no…’
She has a bad feeling about this~. And with each passing seconds, those giggles grew even louder, with the sounds of splashing water accompanying it. Her Ultra Instinct Alarm rang with intense speed!
And then, she saw…a group of, women? Eh? What? She thought that they were some kind of monstrous beings, or ghosts, that took the shape and the sounds of young women. But…They were all, real women! *Mind Blown*
They were walking into the room she was just in, chatting and giggling as they carried what appeared to be jars of water on their heads. Luckily, using her slimy espionage skills, she was able to sneak out of the room unnoticed.
Or so she thought.
Suddenly, they stopped walking. Their giggles stopped, and their body went stiff. Slowly, they cocked their heads around, and-
*GGUUUAUAAAAAUAUAUUAAA*
“Hya?!”
A horrifying scream was let out, as their faces and bodies morphed and twisted in many, painful looking ways. Their skinned darkened, and their eyes gleamed purple. A purple smoke began to ooze out of their skin.
Without looking back, her mind went into full ‘NOPE’ mode and ran away. Of course, these horrifying creatures were not stupid programmed AI, so they hissed with a sound unpleasant to any ears and chased after her, with incredible speed to boot!
*GGGGUUUAAAUAUUAAUAAAAA*
The screams of absolute horror resounded through the rooms as the three ‘sisters’ searched for their prey. They had just followed it into a new room, but, to their surprise, there wasn’t anyone, or anything there.
After looking around some more, they grew bored of trying to find her, morphed back into their pleasant female forms, and then marched back to retrieve a new set of water-filled jars.
Slowly, a puddle of slime descended from the ceiling, along with its red cape, and jumbled together back into Diana. Well, she was still in her slime form, since it seems like those things were ultra sensitive to sound and smell.
“…well…sh*t.”
…………………
Meanwhile, as Diana was just realising how f*cked she was, within the confines of Tartarus, Rei was going around, absolutely wrecking and one punching every single thing she comes across.
She was already fast and strong to begin with. Now, add that with her previously acquired gauntlets, a ring that increased her attack power, and you get absolute chaos and domination throughout the battlefield!
Just like everyone else, Rei was on her journey to reach the bottom, where she would most likely meet back with the rest of her friends. Well, just Diana was fine, but the others too.
*BAM!*
And, there goes down another giant 6-legged lion. Poor little thing~, its stomach was blown open, its body was broken and bruised all over, and its face was just the pure culmination of utter and open ‘…What the f*ck?’.
After she had her meal, she continued on, punching and annihilating anything that came into her line of sight.
But then, just as she was about to head back for the stairs, her eyes caught something, a hole that led to an entirely different area from here!
“…?”
Being intrigued by it, and also by that odd smell of human blood, she decided to wait off on going further in and headed into this secret room. And, just like she expected, all around the walls were a heap of human remains, and frozen blood.
Well, she was a ghoul, so this sight wasn’t something to be scared about. From what she could see, these people that had been thrown into here, were most likely previous adventurers that ventured into this place, just like she did. But unlike her, they didn’t survive.
“Beautiful, isn’t it~?”
“…!”
But then! Out from the shadows, came a woman. Her beautiful golden hair and mystic purple eyes. Her curvy body and alluring aura, her sultry voice and enticing look that invited many oblivious adventurers to their untimely deaths.
Of course, Rei was a ghoul, so such attractions wouldn’t work on her. If anything, the smell of blood in her surroundings were much more alluring than this mysterious woman who just suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
“My~, how rude of me. My name, is Helen. What might your name be, my child~?”
“…………Rei.”
“Oho~! Such a cute name! Was it your name before you became what you are now?”
“…Given.”
“I see~, but I already knew that.”
“…!”
Suddenly, her alluring aura dissipated, as if it never existed in the first place. Her smile disappeared, and her eyes grew cold, as if she was a predator that had just found its prey.
“Say, why don’t we eat these men together? They make a fine meal, no~?”
The woman offered with a devilish smile. This was probably her intentions from the start, to lure her in here, get her to start eating and ripping apart the corpses of these men, and then she would come to devour her.
But, her plan didn’t turn out as she expected. When Rei came in, while she did have an interested look at the human corpses, she wasn’t eating them on sight. Even Rei herself was unsure as to why that is. It was the nature of her kind, was it not?
Fearing that she would soon leave, Helen quickly stepped out of the shadows to greet her, just like how Loki did in the first Avengers movie. Her plan was to, of course, distract and tempt her, so that she could have a fine meal for the day.
But,
“…No.”
Rei answered with absolute determination! Helen was shaken to her core! She knew, from her first glance, that this girl before her was a ghoul, an eater of mankind. And yet! Why was she not interested in these human corpses?!
“W-Why…?”
She couldn’t find it, she couldn’t see why! She had prepared a mountain of food, and yet her prey wasn’t tempted! Where could she have gone wrong?! But with unwavering spirit, Rei closed the gap between them, and delivered her answer!
“…Too, rotten.”
“……Eh?”
An answer, so true yet so bizarre. Helen could only take a step back, her face twisted in shock! Sadly, if she had just borrowed some salt from Reigen, this calamitous problem would not have happened. Because now,
“…Meal.”
“H-Hii!!”
The tables, have been turned!
*Puchi!*
“G…Guha…gaha…”
In a speed her eyes couldn’t comprehend, Rei’s clawed hand moved, and stabbed right through her abdomen. A fountain of blood poured out from her wound, as Helen could only look on in shock and disbelief, before she finally collapses.
And then, just as she did with so many enemies before her, she kneeled down, and began ripping and eating through the remains of what was a fearsome enemy.
After she wiped off all the remaining blood on her chin, she turned around and left the room, leaving behind the rotten mountain of corpses.
Little did she know, that a change had begun to occur inside her, but such an event would have to patiently wait in hiding, before the fruits of its labour could finally be shown. The seeds of change, has been planted.
What the…That ending got weird.