I skimmed over the plains in my land ship. It was officially my new favorite mode of travel. I almost felt bad for stealing it, almost. The wind whipped in my face along with the sting of bits of grit. I didn’t care, I was on a land ship!

I set course due west. I would visit the tower first and then the dungeon. Not the most efficient way to go about things but the tower had the potential for greater rewards. The land ship needed a name. I didn’t want to name it something pretentious like Highwind or Enterprise. “I dub thee Wish.” I called out as I kept zooming over the ground. If there was one wish, it was that there was no more walking ever again.

I crested a hill and shot off into the sky. I pulled a lever and the wings unfolded, allowing me to glide for a ways. As I came up to the ground I pushed the lever forcefully and retracted the wings so they wouldn’t be damaged. I glanced behind me and noted three land boards in pursuit.

I named them land boards since they had to be a third the size of the land ship. It was a seat, mast, and three wheels. There was nothing else. They had less sail cloth to drive them, but they were far lighter.

I was in a car chase, or a land ship chase in this case. I smiled, I never thought this would happen in FEAR. They spread out in a wedge formation behind me and I noted they all had crossbows. If they hit my sail, my speed would be screwed. I could probably take them in a head on fight, but there was a chance of wrecking Wish. I wasn’t giving up my Wish no matter what. I refused to walk across the stupid desert. I was also very low on SP at the moment.

There was nothing to grab up and throw. I just needed to maximize my speed and escape. My pursuers were closing in slightly. They didn’t have a barrel of water or as many supplies as I did. That weight difference was what would lose me this race. Where was a nitro boost when I needed one?

The wind shifted and I reacted immediately. The sharp change in my course caused the edge of the Wish to lift up and to ride on two wheels. I wrestled with the steering wheel and the secondary sail lever and landed with thud that shook the Wish.

One of the land boards was caught up and lifted off the ground. An bolt came in from a land board on my left. I was able to see them raise up their cross bow in time. I swerved the land ship to my right and the arrow hit the dirt.

Another land board came on my right. I swerved hard to my right. The woman controlling the land board panicked and served to avoid me. A bolt hit the main mast right behind my head with a thunk. Time to stop playing around

I stood up on my chair and turned around. The wind was whipping around me as the land ship sped across the rolling plain. I had ten daggers in my harness and grabbed the first one. I stepped back with my right foot onto the steering wheel. I moved it slightly left and right to get a wheel. There would be no chance to dodge easily on the land ship so I had to improvise.

One of the land ships was pulling even with me on my right. I threw my dagger and it hit a wheel, completely missing my target. The man brought up his cross bow and I kicked the steering wheel. The land ship veered to the left and the bolt went wide.

I maneuvered the wheel the other direction and brought the land ship back on course. Two land boards pulled up on my left. Both my opponents were bringing their cross bows to bear. I kicked the wheel hard and the land ship did a sharp turn to cut off the two land boards.

I threw my second dagger. It hit the man in the shoulder. His crossbow went off into the ground. The woman fired and barely missed me by a couple of inches as the bolt sailed past.

I turned around and dropped into my chair. I scanned the landscape ahead and saw a hill off to my left. I quickly spun the land ship in that direction. The land boards were still hot on my tail. The man who had been hit had removed the dagger and was bandaging the wound with his shirt, but still kept up the chase.

I kept swerving left and right, forcing the land boards to give me space or be caught up in an accident. The fact they were aiming for me meant they were trying to capture the ship intact. I reached the hill and sped up it with the wind pushing me.

A moment before I reached the ridge I deployed the wings and banked hard. The wings slowed me down and helped balance out the Wish as it made an incredibly tight turn to follow the ridge of the hill. The tip of the right wing hovered just above the ground as I made the sharp turn.

The land board I had veered in front of panicked and turned to the right. Unfortunately for him the land board was unable to turn that tightly and broke into a tumble. It crashed right behind me as I sped off along the ridge. The other two land boards had shot over the hill and were trying to catch back up with me.

I law Divide Lake to my left along with a number of farms. That was just asking to crash, it was better to stick to the plains. I scanned the landscape and spotted an out cropping of rock up ahead that created a minor cliff. I kept the wings extended and headed straight for it.

My speed had decreased after that turn and I didn’t dare slowdown in case I lost lift. I had no idea how lift worked in FEAR. It was something to investigate at a later time. The land boards had come back up the hill and were right on my tail. Another bolt hit the Wish but I ignored it.

I went right over the rocky out cropping. One land board was too late in breaking off and went over with a crash. The woman was smeared out across the ground in a pile of twisted limbs and splintered wood.

Wish hit the ground and I retracted the wings. I looked back and saw the last land board break off pursuit. “Yar! I am the mighty land ship warrior pirate.” I shouted out. I shook my head at my own silliness and sped across the plains headed back towards the desert that I had lost so much in.

I worked it out that the land ship did about 60 miles per hour which was insane. Based on my earlier travels I had worked out that the tower was about 620 miles to my west and 275 miles to my north. That meant it was 678 miles or just about to reach the tower in a straight line or just around twelve hours.

I sipped from a canteen while enjoying a sandwich I made. It was made of long thin bread with a light crust. In the sandwich I had put slices of a green fruit that tasted like a cross between an apple and a peach. A bit sweet but it was balanced out by the pieces of salted jerky.

Now this was how to travel in style. There was nothing in the desert except some random plants and lots of sand. There was an occasional rock, but it was an incredibly desolate place. I could even Meditate on the land ship which was totally broken. I couldn’t do it on an animal, but a mechanical contraption allowed me to travel and regenerate MP.

I could easily see the future when mages flew about on their personal craft while meditating. It almost made me want to start over to put my stat points into a magic focus.

I wondered where the nomads had went. We hadn’t seen a town or city near the tower. So they were out here somewhere. If I did run across any I was confident I could take them or at least sail away.

As the sun was going down I spotted the mountain that the tower had been on. I slowed the Wish down to a stop. I would investigate in the morning. No need to go to a dangerous dungeon while tired.

Nothing happened during the night and I woke up the next morning and set off towards the glassed mountain. The current weather was sunny. The forecast said there was a slight chance of epic trouble. I always ran into trouble. It was just a matter of how much trouble.

I brought the land ship in between two boulders and parked it. With the sails retracted it had no chance of moving. There was no key or lock. Good for stealing it, bad for leaving it unattended. I really didn’t want to lose my land ship. “You stay right here Wish. If anyone touches you, they will wish they were never born.” I gave it a pat and set off across the glassed rock with my flame blade drawn and at the ready.

The quiet and lack of anything except smooth black rock was unnerving. I made my way back to the top of the sunken tower and the dungeon entrance. I entered and saw there were a number of tracks on the floor. Probably human, but it wasn’t clear.

The top floor was exactly what I remembered. Tafe was still smiling like a demented mental patient. I looked at the statue of the Endolgon. So many legs and incredibly long. If the tunnels were any indication of its width, then its length was around 120 feet. That was massive.

I began traveling down. The library was my destination. The knowledge contained there should answer all my questions. I walked down into the library room and just stared. Where there had been hundreds of books, now there was moldy lumps. The books were completely gone.

There went a lot of my hopes. There was still one book and I would at least retrieve that. The door into the room with the moving statues was smashed down and all the statues destroyed. It looked like a wrecking ball had moved about the room, smashing everything to bits of rubble.

Whomever or whatever did that was incredibly strong or pissed off. Looking at how small the scraps were, it was probably both. I kept going down floor after floor. There was some evidence that at least one person had been here. Crawl spaces had been opened up and the passage forward made much easier.

I passed the spot where One died. I stopped for a moment and hoped they were all doing okay. None of them were speaking with me and I didn’t press the issue by sending out messages. There was nothing to say really, that whole thing was survival of the fittest.

I reached the room with the green fruits without incident. I noted that the crates were empty. I tried moving one, but it was stuck to the floor. I frowned at that, since it made no sense and went to the next level where the slime had been before. I entered the room and there was nothing there. I figured that I would have seen at least one monster.

There were a total of twenty floors and each of them was empty as the next. This entire place was an empty ruin. I began my ascent back up the tower. The fact there was nothing here was disappointing and enlightening. Someone or something had come here and made a passage to reach the lower levels more easily. The millions of level one black slimes were gone along with the Book of Tafe.

The girl and been a monster and was down here, where were the other monsters? I stopped at the pool at what was probably the main level when the tower was standing. The water was still there. I had ignored it before, but as I climbed it didn’t make sense.

Everything in this tower was missing except for a pool of water which should have evaporated a while ago. I tossed a piece of rubble into the pool and it sunk without incident. I sniffed it and looked at it, and for all intents and purposes it appeared to be normal water. “Identification.” Nothing happened. “Observe.”

Drop of Black SlimeLvL: 1Strongest Stat: FateHP: 1MP: 1SP: 1Strongest Skill: Dissolve

I backed away quickly. The slime twisted about in the pool, but didn’t do anything else. I let out my breath. I walked back over and looked in the pool. The book wasn’t in there. “Hello? Can you understand me?” Not being attacked by monsters for months now had really made be relaxed to their overall danger. I had survived the Endolgon.

Nothing happened and then the pool rippled outwards from the center. “Alright. Can you spell something out or use telepathy?” The pool rippled inwards.

“Alright then. Did someone take the book you had with you?” The pool rippled inwards. The book was gone most likely, which was unfortunate.

“Did Tafe give you any more orders?” Come on loaded question. The pool was still for a long moment and then it swirled in a circle. That confirmed it. All monsters have a bit of troll in them. Time to go for broke. “Will you follow me?”

The pool rippled inwards. “Are you sure? There doesn’t appear to be much down here. Oh, maybe you want water or something.” I pulled out a canteen of water and one of oil. I opened them both up. The millions of droplets shifted over both entrances. There was a slight jerk and the oil poured out. The slime condensed around the oil for a moment and then dispersed back out.

“If you come with me there is more oil.” The pool was still for an entire minute before swirling about. A better response but a massive horde of killer slimes would be the best pet. “Is there any way I can convince you?” The pool rippled outwards.

“Do you want something?” Outwards ripples.

“Do you want the book back?” A swirl.

“Do you want to kill the person who took the book?” A swirl outwards and then a swirl.

“Do you want to kill everyone who looked at the book?” A ripple outwards.

“Can you sense where they are?” A ripple inwards.

“Can you tell if they read it, if they are close?” A ripple outwards. That was interesting. If the monster could do it, that meant Tafe could sense who looked at it as well.

“Well I want to get the book back. You won’t find them if you hide out down here. If you come with me you can become more powerful and find the book and everyone who looked at it. What do you say?” The pool was still as I waited for a response. It then rippled inwards. I cursed to myself.

“Do I need to promise you something more?” The pool rippled outwards.

“Okay then. Do you want sacrifices, human bodies?” I asked. The pool rippled inwards. “Alright then. You are a bunch of black slimes, what do slimes want?” The pool swirled at the rhetorical question.

“Do you want another slime?” The pool rippled inwards and then swirled.

“You want to find someone specific?” The pool rippled inwards.

“Tafe?” The pool swirled.

“Umm, the hero who imprisoned Tafe?” The pool rippled inwards.

“Okay, dumb question. Who could it be? The Endolgon?” I asked. The pool rippled outwards.

“Well the Endolgon gave me this weapon.” I gestured at my hip with my stump. I didn’t want to let my flame blade go out since it was my only source of light. A tendril of the black slime rose out of the pool and poked the hilt of the sword. I didn’t interrupt it.

The tendril retreated and the pool swirled. “So will you come with me now?” The pool rippled outwards for a bit and then swirled.

“Is there a problem?” The pool rippled outwards.

“You can’t leave the tower?” An outwards ripple and then a swirl.

I thought about it for a moment. “The desert, you can’t stand the heat and the sand. Right?” The pool rippled outwards.

“Alright then. I know I am going to regret this, but could you live inside of me?” The pool stilled for a bit and then swirled.

“I am going to touch you. Try not to melt me.” I brought up my loose sleeve to reveal my stump. I then poked the end into the black slimes. There was a long moment of burning. I pulled out my stump and saw that some of the flesh had melted away.

“Similar to the death poison from the scythe. Definitely potent, raw death poison.” I had never developed an immunity to the death poison despite all the trouble it gave me. It didn’t instantly disintegrate me which I took as a positive.

“Can I swallow a single drop of you?” I asked. The pool rippled in multiple directions before settling in rippling outwards. I laid down next to the pool and opened my mouth. “Just a drop in my mouth.” A tendril came over and a single drop came off and into my mouth. I quickly swallowed and watched my HP drop by a hundred points while burning pain came from inside of me.

I wondered how the slimes could see and communicate. A problem for another time. “Alright, another drop.” I said after the pain went from burning to a dull ache. Twenty more times and two thousand HP before I got a message.

Poison Immunity-4Taste like chickenLvL 1: You are immune to basic poisons

LvL 2: You are immune to intermediate poisons

Types: Spore, Bug

LvL 3: You are immune to advanced poisons

Type: Plant

LvL4: You are immune to special poisons

Type: Death

I really didn’t want to find out about a level five poison. “Let’s try this.” I sat up and put my stump into the pool. I didn’t feel anything. When I took it out, there was no damage. The pool began swirling.

“Time to logic this before I go ahead. FEAR doesn’t have real bodies. Everything is emulated, which is why someone can develop statuses from drinking blood. Poison is a good example. Normally only organic poisons like snake venoms worked like this. Heavy metals are a death sentence.” I looked at the list of poisons and all of them were organic.

“So blood doesn’t really exist as a function of the body, but rather as a visual and visceral effect. This means that someone could lose all their blood and still function. But with the ability Blood Drain, my status bars could be contained in my blood as a symbol of my life force.”

“Okay, let’s try this. Can you enter the wound you made in my arm and move about my body instead of my blood?” The pool swirled and rippled. It finally settled on an outwards ripple that was very small. Maybe the drops had a democracy, one vote per drop.

I shook my head and focused. “Okay, just small bit.” I stuck my stump back in the pool. I saw a bit of blood come out that was quickly consumed by the black slimes. My immunity didn’t protect things outside my body, interesting. I didn’t feel any different and my bars didn’t drop.

“Let’s try a bit more this time.” More black slimes surged up and I felt a bit of pain as blood was forced out and the black slimes entered my body. I didn’t feel any different and nothing else had changed.

“Can you come back out?” The black slimes began to reemerge and I noted that my bars began to drop. “Stop! Back in.” They went back in and the bars returned to where they were.

“A bit of good and bad. Can you harden yourselves?” The pool rippled outwards. “Can I see an example.” A small portion condensed in front of me. If I had to guess, the ratio was about ten to one. I poked the hard bit of black slime that had been left at the lip of the pool. It was moist but dense like a dense bread. So it couldn’t just build a body to escape but could make itself rigid. “Can you undo it?” The portion broke apart into individual droplets that flowed back into the pool.

“Replacing my muscles, bones, and organs would be a bad idea.” I said aloud in the underground chamber. “Maybe replacing out the fat would work, or bulking me up.” The main issue was that the black slime couldn’t replace functionality and if it could I didn’t want to depend on it like that. If it left, I would die.

I also couldn’t feel it inside of me, which was disturbing. “Let’s have you leave my body.” I watched as my bars drained as the slime exited completely. “Now back in, the same part.” My bar regenerated back up to where it was before. I could store energy in the slime. The problem came in the fact that I took in about a one hundredth of the slime and lost a tenth of my bars.

If the whole slime entered me and somehow fit, then it suck out ten times my available energy. None of my bars were near max, so I didn’t even know if I could generate a surplus inside of my body. If I could then this was definitely worthwhile.

***

Author’s Note: I couldn’t resist. The option for a land ship chase was too tempting. Oh. My. God. I just realized Furiosa was short one arm and kicked ass. I didn’t realize until I was writing this chapter about how much she kicked ass with only one arm.

This chapter got away from me. I strated writing about the slime and it was like BAM! So all those stories with slime tamers, this is how you do it. Replace out your blood with slime joo joo. I am a bit of a loss on how to stuff that much black slime inside of a body, suggestions would be nice.

The black slime won’t want to separate great distances. A portion can’t be taken and the rest left behind.

The black slime has a current volume of about 4-5 times Blood Rain and about 10-12 times Blood Rains total blood volume.

The black slime won’t allow portions of it to be killed.

The black slime is weak to heat and sand.

If the black slime shrinks to ‘dense bread’ its volume decreases at a ratio of 10:1

Unknown if Blood Rain will generate above his max caps if the slime is inside of him.

Unknown what happens to Demonic Blood Corruption and Ichor Blood Corruption.

Unknown if the black slime can replicate an organ’s function.

Unknown if organs are needed for a body to function.

Unknown what happens if all his blood is replaced.

Blood Rain would greatly prefer to have a power up.

Blood Rain does not want to depend on the black slime so much it kills him if it leaves him.

Blood Rain would prefer to make a decision quickly.

Using the above facts and the information from the story, please suggest how he would succeed in taking the black slime with him. All those unknowns are known by me and I won’t change them.

The next chapter will probably be a bonus chapter foreshadowing an upcoming event, so there will be some time to discuss and reach a consensus. WRITE IN!!!