Chapteer 14: Still Alive

I awoke in darkness.

For a moment, I didn’t know where I was or how I came to be lying on my back on cold hard stone. Then the pain riddling my body made itself known and it all came rushing back: the slime was dead and I had survived—if barely. Seeming in response to my thoughts, a message from the Game dropped into my mind.

Warning! Your health is dangerously low at 5%. Death imminent.

I lifted my head to take stock of my surroundings and gasped as even that slight movement caused new jolts of agony to rip through my body. Bloody hell, it hurts. But I had to move.

Stretched out on the floor, with my health hovering at nearly zero, I was a sitting duck. What if another slime comes to investigate? That dire thought was enough to spur me on. Panting with the effort, I rolled onto my side. “Gnat,” I croaked. “Where are you?”

I heard the flap of bone wings from above and felt the bat alight on my arm. “I’m here, Michael.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“You won,” he replied. He chuckled. “Although you don’t look so good anymore.”

I was in too much pain to muster a retort. “Why aren’t I healing?” I asked, focusing instead on the matter that concerned me most.

Gnat tilted his head to the side and studied me. “Why would you?”

I glared at him. “Isn’t this a game? Aren’t players supposed to recover after every encounter?” Something told me they should.

The skeletal bat snickered. “I don’t know what games you’ve been playing, Michael, but that is not how things work in the Grand Game.” He paused. “In the Forever Kingdom, your injuries won’t mend of their own accord. You will have to find a means to heal yourself.”

What sort of wretched game is this? I wondered, staring at my familiar aghast. But complaining would do me no good. Wriggling my arms, I managed to unhook my backpack, though not without suffering multiple bouts of agony.

I dragged myself to a nearby wall and, pulling the backpack into my lap, searched feverishly for the healing potions. With trembling hands, I un-stoppered the lid of the first and downed its contents.

The effect was instantaneous.

Ripples of soothing energy flowed out of my stomach and into my much-battered body. Damaged tissue was mended, torn skin grew back, and cuts and abrasions healed before my eyes. “Wow,” I exclaimed, overcome by momentary euphoria.

You have restored 10% of your lost health with a minor healing potion. Your health is now at 15%.

A second later the comforting waves of energy faded and the pain returned with a vengeance. “Well, it was nice while it lasted,” I mumbled through gritted teeth. Without hesitation, I pulled out my second—and last—healing potion and drank it too.

You have restored 10% of your lost health with a minor healing potion. Your health is now at 25%.

I eyed the Game message unhappily. Twenty-five percent health wasn’t much, but it was still a darn sight better than five percent. “I’ve got to find more of these potions,” I muttered. I rose gingerly to my feet and packed away the empty vials. I had a vague idea of how to make use of them in future.

My head pulsed suddenly, forcing me to lean on the passage wall for support. What the—? The moment I concentrated on the sensation, I felt more messages from the Adjudicator unfurl in my mind.

Congratulations, Michael! You have successfully defeated your first opponent and have gained experience. You have reached level 4! You have 2 attribute points available. Your dodging has increased to level 2. Your shortswords has increased to level 7.

A smile broke through my grimace of pain. At least, the encounter had yielded some meaningful benefits. I tottered over to my slain foe.

The Game had called it a black slime, and in death that was truly what it looked like. Very little remained of the creature. Its soft, gel-like body seemed to have decomposed further, leaving behind nothing but puddles of sticky, black ichor.

Glancing down at myself, I saw that much of my white tunic and shorts had been ripped and torn away. The bits that remained were steaked with black: more of the slime’s remains. Ick, I thought, my face twisting in disgust. My thief’s cloak, at least, seemed to have survived the encounter relatively intact, for which I was grateful.

“You were lucky,” Gnat said, interrupting my musing.

I turned to him. “Hmm?”

“If it had hit you the first time around, you would not have survived,” the bat replied.

I glanced at the wall at the end of the passage where the slime’s opening salvo had landed. “What did it shoot at me?”

“A paralytic,” Gnat replied. “Slimes use them to stun their prey before they consume them.”

I shuddered. Was that why the slime had wrapped itself around me? To eat me? “Well, it’s dead now,” I said.

Gnat nodded.

“Pity there is nothing salvageable in this mess,” I said, glancing at the creature’s ruined remains.

“There will be a lair,” Gnat said confidently. “And a chest.”

My brows rose in surprise. “Really?”

The skeletal bat bobbed his head. “The Master designed this sector as a trial, remember. There will be a reward. You only need find it.”

I nodded thoughtfully. It made sense. Every room I had been to—besides those in this side passage—had contained loot chests after all. I swept my gaze over the darkened passage. I had already been over every inch of the area. If the slime’s lair was here, I was sure I would have found it already.

I sighed. There was nothing for it, but to search again. Wincing in pain from my injuries, I hobbled deeper into the passage.