At that moment, Diana knew, she f*cked up.
“H-Hii!!!”
In fear, she held her knife and jumped back, avoiding the deadly grip of the skeletal mage. A maniacal smile appeared on its skull, a bright purple flame brightly burning within its empty eyes.
She now knew, just how bad of an idea this whole damn thing is! She was severely under-levelled! That damn skeleton just survived a knife to its neck, added with the bonus from her [Assassination] skill too!
“Kiiikikiki!”
“W-What t-the hell am I f-fighting!?”
Sensing the pitiful excuse of a mana pool she had, the skeleton mage dropped its staff onto the ground and clenched its hand. A deadly black miasma appeared from its robe and surrounded its skeletal fist, an aura of death floating around it.
The skeleton lunged forwards, and sent a punch. She ducked down from the punch, but another fist from below sent her flying back. She crashed onto the dirt, wincing in pain as she did her best to get up.
Wasn’t this guy a mage…?
Slowly, she managed to stand up, but too she was too slow. Another punch was sent at her gut, a gasp escaped her lips as she was sent flying once more. Her HP took a drastic fall, dropping from her newly increased 14, to a dangerous 5!
She didn’t have any potions either! It isn’t like this damn skeleton would wait for her to munch on her food and heal! This is reality! She isn’t some Dragonborn!
But then, hope appeared!
*Boink!*
Behind, where the skeleton’s staff laid, Slimey could be seen, slowly rolling the staff over to her. She quickly understood what its intentions were from the familiar bond, but she would’ve known nonetheless.
She didn’t know what staff that was, nor what it would do to her, but it was her best shot at this b*tch! She couldn’t use magic, and her knife skills were useless! That damn staff was her best option!
But, even if the skeletal mage hadn’t noticed Slimey, it wasn’t going to wait for her. Cracking a grin, the skeleton slowly walked towards her, its two hands covered in a deadly miasma, entailing absolute death.
She couldn’t wait for the staff any longer! She needed it now!
And she ain’t no Thor to have that staff fly to her!
And so, [Slime Valley] activated!
“Kiki?”
*Wuushh!!*
Controlling her own slimy hand, she extended the arm towards the staff, and pulled it towards her. The skeleton didn’t understand, and simply squashed the arm she extended, breaking her connection with her hand, along with a fifth of her mana. But it was enough, as the skeleton was shocked to see its own staff rolling past it.
Regenerating her arm back, she took hold of the staff with her other hand and held it towards the skeleton. She severely wanted to stand and stab her staff into the dirt, shouting ‘You shall not paaasss!!’, but let’s save that for another time.
“K-Kiki!!”
Realising that its staff had been stolen, the miasma around its arm thickened, and shot out towards her. She moved by instincts, closing her eyes and awaiting the incoming death. And she did feel the death.
But it never reached.
“N-Ngh…?”
Opening her eyes, she was shocked to see that the purple gem on the tip, was taking in all the miasma it shot out. The gem greedily absorbed the miasma, so much so that all the miasma that had been present, had disappeared.
Shining brightly in a dazzling purple, the gem glowed and covered the entire area in a purple shine. She shut her eyes out, hoping that this beam of light would do no harm to her, knowing that it was impossible for it to not to.
Slowly, she began to feel her energy deplete. Her HP, MP, and SP quickly went down to zero as the gem continued to emit the purple light, the beacon shooting up into the clouds above. And before she knew it, she had fallen unconscious.
………………….
Ooof…That hurt.
“U-Ugh…?”
The world blurred and twisted, or was it her own vision? She didn’t know, she didn’t really know…What happened actually? The scenery around her seems fine, Slimey’s simply enjoying a nap there, and the skies were clear. Where did the skeleton go?
But as she stood up, she saw the skeleton, lying on the ground. She tensed up for a moment, but as she saw the empty eye sockets the skeleton had, she now knew, that the life it once had was snuffed out. The purple flame that once burned in its eyes were no more.
She sighed for a moment, knowing that she had survived. Not won, survived. How did she know? There weren’t any messages screaming to her about her experience gain, so she couldn’t have beaten it, right?
She was about to think about it further, but the cold wind brushing across her naked body was giving her shivers. Picking up the clothes she left behind, she put them back on, realising that they didn’t really help at all. A loose white shirt and some short pants weren’t going to help much, are they?
But then, she spotted the cause of all of this, the staff. Walking over to it, she picked it up and inspected it. The staff itself looked indifferent, but the gem that once laid above the staff was no more. Did it break because of this? Probably did.
Anyways, she’s tired now…That battle hadn’t left her with much to go on. Her condition had healed slightly from the quick rest, but it wasn’t going to do her any good if it stayed like this.
So, just like always, it was resting time!
Sitting down with her legs crossed, she closed her eyes and relaxed. Sadly, there wasn’t any save options here. Well, there might be churches here, so she could save her progress there but…That’s a video game so, no.
Without much of an effort, she entered her trance and rested.
………………
3 hours flew by instantly, and her condition was back to full! HP restored! Opening her eyes, she was happy to see her HP back to normal, along with her MP and SP. That’s good! Alright, time to move!
Standing up, she quickly ran up towards her leather backpack and wore it on her back. Running down the hill, she made her way towards the sleeping Slimey. From her connection, this guy seems to be fine, but that light had sapped it of its energy, so it’s now sleeping.
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“Thanks.”
Looking at the green blob, she silently thanked the slime and placed it into her backpack. If it wasn’t for this guy, she would’ve most likely died, and that wouldn’t be pleasant, despite her occasional thoughts to take her own life to maybe return to reality.
“Well…Where to…?”
But now that that’s done, where to now?! Everywhere she looked, all she could see was the same damn scenery! Who was the creator of this world?! Did they use procedural-generation for this?! At least have some trees or something!!
Anyways, with the loss of the gem, the power she felt from it dropped severely, but it still felt powerful to her. Her skin trembled as it felt the power the staff could unleash. Would this staff unlock her true potential?! Was this her fabled legendary weapon?!
Maybe…But that’s for later. For now, she should try and search for a village. She wouldn’t do so well all alone here, especially now that no trees could act as her cover against the deadly creatures of the night. She shivered as she pictured more of that skeletal mages, surrounding her from every direction.
Just one brought that much trouble, then how about 2, or 3, or 5? She would be dead in a matter of nanoseconds! She didn’t even know what a nanosecond even is!
And so, with her eyes vigilantly watching her surroundings, she made her way through the silent plains. The grass waved as the cold wind passed by, her long black hair flowing in the wind. Her soft steps echoed through the air.
Occasionally, she would climb a small hill, and look out towards the distance, hoping to see a small village, or a road even. Sadly, she couldn’t install any mods to add a map, so she’s pretty much screwed!
And before she knew it, night came. Not wanting to deal with more monsters beyond her league, she sat down and meditated once more. Again, she tried to grasp her mana and direct it elsewhere, but her mana refused, simply flowing past her will. Without much success that night, she snapped out of her trance and lied down.
Closing her eyes, she rested her head atop the grass, and fell asleep.
The next day, she woke up to her grumbling stomach, empty from the necessary nutrients it needed to process. She frowned and tapped her belly, knowing that she wasn’t going to find any food for some time.
Wearing her backpack behind her, she picked up her staff and continued walking. Slimey was still asleep, which worried her, but she could still feel its life, even if her worries hadn’t been dispelled in the slightest.
Her stomach growled once more. She was beginning to feel dizzy. 5 more minutes went by, and her muscles started growing weak. Her lips and tongue were dry of their needed moisture, and her energy was depleting.
10 minutes, and she finally collapsed, but her consciousness held on. Her will didn’t easily back down, as she continued to crawl along the ground. She tried using the staff as a support stick, but her lack of energy simply caused her to fall down once more.
15 minutes, and still nothing. Most of her energy had been drained, her fingers not able to hold her staff. Abandoning the staff for a moment, she looked up, to see an angel floating above her. She smiled weakly, as she watched the angel flicker in and out.
She was beginning to hallucinate.
But then, just a meter away from her, she saw it. The one thing, that would grant her salvation from her starving stomach. Something, that could wash all these problems away.
Before her, she saw a berry bush!
Her mind knew that it was probably a bad idea. She had seen enough movies and video games to say that eating random berries from a random bush would probably kill you! Especially ‘Unturned’. Seriously, all the berries there are deadly!
But her starving mind caused her reason to cloud.
With a renewed vigour, she crawled her way towards the berry bush. Every crawl she did left her with less and less energy to work on. But it was enough, as she plucked a single red berry from the bush.
She stared at it with wonder, the red skin glowing red from her touch. She smiled weakly and ate the berry, tasting the sweet, sour, yet also bitter taste of the berry. Swallowing the berry, she took another one, and another one, and another one, until finally, no berries were left behind.
But that no matter, her hunger’s gone!!
“Hahahahahaha!! I’m freeee~!”
She stood up and laughed. She wobbled unsteadily, but her smiled never faded. Slowly, and unsteadily, she walked back to where her staff was, and dropped her backpack. She squirmed in delight and laid down, her hands tightly holding onto her hips.
“Mmm~”
A wave of feelings coursed within her. She bit her lip and moaned, feeling a sudden spike in pleasure.
It seems like the berry was an aphrodisiac…
“A-Ah~”
Her body shivered as more and more sensations overtook her mind. Her hands seemed to move on their own, removing the white shirt she was wearing. Her cheeks turned pink as her instincts took over, her hands playing with her own body.
And that was how it went for 5 minutes or so. She squirmed and moaned, her hands aggressively playing with her own body, her body blasted with pleasure. And before she knew it, the effects ran out, and she was left lying atop the grass, panting from the play she had with herself.
“Mmm…”
Not bothering to cover her exposed chest, she slowly closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the wind brushing against her naked skin. The aphrodisiac finally washed away, finally allowing her mind to think rationally, somewhat.
“Well…that was…nice.”
Her face flushed, she stood up and put her shirt back on. On one hand, she couldn’t believe she actually did that to herself. While on the other, she was slightly disappointed at how fast that passed.
But let’s continue, okay? Let’s leave that behind for now.
With her backpack on her back, and her staff in hand, she walked on, her face still flushed as she recalled just how good that felt. That play had left her wanting more, but those berries she ate seemed quite rare, so that would have to wait for later. That, and she can’t just be enjoying herself in the middle of a battle, okay?
“That’s…”
But, for the first time since a while, another monster had shown itself, or what looked to be a monster at least. Several meters away from her, she could see what looked to be a mushroom, walking on two little stubby legs. Its body was mostly white, with the large cap it had being blue in colour. Two tiny little arms extended out from its body.
She could guess that this was the thing that would give some type of debuff to her. You know, like those annoying monsters that are just there to weaken you? Yeah, those things! It’s like a Pokémon specially designed and created to have status attacks!
So, she had to be careful.
Putting her staff and her backpack down, she pulled out her knife and slowly made her way towards the shroom. Her [Assassination] skill clearly came in handy here, as she easily made her way up to the shroom without any notice.
With her knife in the air, she brought the knife down and stabbed it into the shroom’s head! Pulling the knife out, a burst of purple gas exploded out. As quickly as she could, she covered her mouth and jumped away, but she still inhaled some of the purple gas.
She safely made it back to her items and watched as a message popped up.
[Enemy has been slain. Gained 19 Experience]
But she could hardly focus, as she started to giggle. She collapsed onto the dirt and rolled around, giggling and laughing as the gas took effect. Tears escaped her eyes as she tried to stop laughing, only to giggle.
This day doesn’t seem to be on her side…
And so, after about 10 minutes of laughing and rolling around the ground like a little kid, she finally stood up and sighed. She still giggled occasionally, but the effect was mostly gone, mostly.
“D-Damn it…pfft…s-stop…aha…pfft…”
Even as she tried to meditate and enter her trance, the ticklish feeling would instantly snap her out of it. Over all, it wasn’t very pleasant, or was pleasant, depending on how you saw it!
Another 10 minutes passed, and finally, the effect was gone! My goodness. She had just come out from the aphrodisiac, and now this?! Could she get some time to relax? Please?
Anyways, she did just kill a monster, so let’s look at her stats!
Name: Diana
Race: Human
Age: 17
Class: Peasant Lv: 2/5 | Exp: 46/75
HP: 14/14
MP: 13/14
SP: 10/14
[Strength]: 4
[Tenacity]: 3
[Agility]: 4
[Intelligence]: 3
[Dexterity]: 5
[Mentality]: 4
[Endurance]: 4
[Wisdom]: 4
[Longevity]: 2
[Skill Points]: 5
{Skills}: [Slime Valley: Lv 2/10], [Knife Mastery Lv 2/10], [Slime Magic Lv 2/10], [Assassination Lv 1/10], [Alleviation Lv 1/5]
{Magic}: -
{Titles}: [Slime Queen]
As you can see, not much had changed, besides her Exp count that is. Just 29 more points to go, and level 3 baby! Just 2, or 3 monsters left until that sweet level up!
“Okay…pfft…”
Picking her items back up, she continued her walk, walking past the dead corpse of the mushroom. She questioned if there was anything of value inside, but the rotting smell it had quickly dispelled any questions.
Walking and hiking past another small hill, she decided to take a small break and sat down. Leaning her back against her backpack, she closed her eyes and entered her trance. The feelings of the physical world quickly faded away.
Once more, she tried to grasp and direct her mana. The flowing river of her magic shook from her will, but still remained stubborn and kept flowing through without her control. She kept herself focused, her mana continuing to reject her will.
But alas, her focus slipped and the mana stopped responding. Sighing to herself, she snapped herself out and opened her eyes. Doesn’t seem like she’ll be able to do it for a while.
And so, standing up, she picked up her staff and walked on, her eyes still not drained from the energy despite her many failures. This was a normal thing for her, as she was too, was once a noob. She knew how hard it was to get a good grip on a game, and how hard it was to maintain that level of skill.
So she knew not to give up, as it wouldn’t be over until you give up.
And it shouldn’t be, as she looked on in happiness, as standing up atop a small hill, she saw the first signs of human civilisation! A village!
And of course, she was heading there next! What kind of person would miss out a chance like this to heal? Not her! Time to find a church and save her progress!