Everyone knew about Random Encounters, the basic Adventurer’s Handbook went over them. Monsters could appear and attack at anytime, in any place not designated as a ‘Safe Zone’. The main road (Which ran across most of the continent and led to Terralane’s other major cities) was protected by King Sam’s divine magic. As long as you stayed on the road, you were totally safe from monster attack, no matter what.

However, once you left the main road, the gloves came off, and the Random Encounters started. And according to thousands of years of history, they truly were random. You could never predict when they’d happen, or what they would contain. The only thing we knew for sure, the only saving grace, was that after a Random Encounter, you had a fifteen minute period of guaranteed safety.

But knowing about them, and actually experiencing one were two totally different things.

There we were, Brygid and I, walking side by side through the grass, just minding our own business. We’d meandered off the main road after about five miles of walking and into the grasses at Brygid’s insistence. Something about a magical fruit tree.

Then.

*BWOOP*

The first slime just showed up in a haze of static, plopping down right in front of us. Eight more static noises followed, and we’d found ourselves instantly surrounded by slimes.

Pretty scary shit, to be honest.

I growled, throwing a double-charged Spark Jab at the blue slime directly in front of me, in an attempt to drive it backward and open up some breathing room. My punch connected with a wet “shplat” in the middle of the slime, gauntleted fist sinking into the slime’s body nearly to my elbow, a few inches away from the pulsing red orb that was the slime’s core.

Lightning burst from my fist, surging throughout the slime’s entire body. Several arcs struck the slime’s core, lancing straight through it.

My hand flashed with a quick, glancing pain as some of the lightning rebounded back into it.

[You have struck Blue Slime (Lvl 1) with Spark Jab Lvl 2! You deal 21 Physical Damage; Blue Slime resists 50% for 10 damage. You deal 3 Lightning Damage; Blue Slime is vulnerable to lightning element and takes 100% extra damage. Blue Slime core is a vulnerable location and takes 50% extra damage. Blue Slime takes a total of (10+9)=19 damage. Remaining HP: 106/125.]

[Spark Jab inflicts 1 point of recoil damage! 359/360HP remaining.]

“Watch it Emmanuel! One coming at you from the right!”

Brygid’s voice shouted down from above me as she strafed by overhead, launching multiple feather attacks at the other of the two slimes currently attacking me. Each blue slime was almost as large as I was, a viscous form that wiggled back and forth menacingly.

The feathers sizzled on impact, boiling away a huge chunk out of the slime’s liquid form. The remainder slumped over into the tall green grass, dissolving into a cloud of light particles. Brygid continued on by, going to thin out the rest of mob swarming our little party. I guess for a little while, she'd be our tank.

The slime let out a gurgling, pained squeal, leaping backward off of my arm in retreat. I grinned and leapt backward myself, just as the slime Brygid had warned me about—also blue-- came sailing in from the right, shlorping into the spot I’d just been standing.

The slime I hit wiggled in agitation and started oozing towards me rapidly. Well, rapidly for a slime anyway. I guess I pissed it off. The other slime began circling around me in a wide arc to my right.

I took a quick scan of my surroundings to make sure no other slimes would catch me off guard. Besides the two directly facing me, there were six others. Brygid had drawn the attention of five of them and pulled them away to the east.

The last one, a fat green slime, was farther behind all of the others and moving around Brygid’s group to come to me. It was larger, slower, and distinctly more dangerous looking, as it left a trail of dissolving grass in its wake.

[Examine successful!]

Green Slime (Level 5)

HP: 200/200

Atk: 9-17 points of Acid damage per second when engulfing a target.

Def: 50% Resistance to Physical damage. 100% weakness to Lightning, 50% weakness to Fire.

Description: Green slimes are a step above their lowly blue brethren on the slime hierarchy. Unlike blue slimes, which can take up to five seconds to start digesting their prey, green slimes are dangerous to the touch, as their acidic fluids are strong enough to begin eating away at flesh on contact.

Putting my left hand in front of me, I activated [Produce Chain]. Even though the slimes resisted physical damage, every little bit would help. I ground my teeth together as the slimes approached, steel chain rapidly spooling out of the electric orb I held.

Once the chain was finished, I wrapped it around my hand, and with a mental push that was already becoming second nature, I double tapped Lightning in a Bottle, body flaring with electric power, electricity flickering over my lightning shaped scars.

STR: 19-> 57

AGI: 23->69

RCT: 23->69

SPD: 51->153

The HP drain was risky, but I had enough potions not to worry about it, and trying to fight three slimes at once was riskier. I needed to finish the two small fry before the big guy showed up.

I sprang into action without hesitation, rushing to meet the slime charging at me. With my enhanced speed, I bounded across the space between us faster than it could do the slime equivalent of blink.

Once within range, I leapt at the slime, grasping onto its gelatinous body with both hands. I kept the slime clutched tightly with my right hand, rearing back with my left arm as far as I could. My chain wrapped hand burst into a cloud of lightning as I double Overcharged a Spark Jab and drove my fist forward with all my might, striking directly towards the slime’s core.

My fist punched through the gelatin like a hot knife through butter, carving out a path into the slime and slamming into the core.

[You hit Blue Slime Lvl 1 in the vulnerable core with Spark Jab Lvl 2, dealing 33 Physical and 15 Lightning Damage. Total Damage: 48. Remaining HP: 58/125]

[Spark Jab inflicts 3 points of recoil damage! Remaining HP: 316/360]

I pulled my fist back before the slime could react and once again slammed home a fully charged Spark Jab. After hitting the core again, I opened my hand, grasped the palm sized orb in my hand, and squeezed with all my strength.

It put up the barest hint of resistance, and then popped like an over-ripe apple.

[You have crushed Blue Slime Lvl 1’s core! Fatal Blow! You have defeated Blue Slime Lvl 1!]

Whipping my head toward my right, I locked onto the slime that had been trying to flank me.

“Auugh! Come here, you!” With a roar, I barreled at the slime, quickly checking my remaining MP.

MP: 280/750

It wasn’t a ton, but it’d be enough.

I repeated my maneuver from the first slime, jumping onto the man sized blob and delivering a fully powered blow to the core. Instead of going back for a second punch, this time I grabbed the core right away. I grit my teeth and put all fifty seven of my strength into squeezing, ripping, and tearing.

To its credit, the slime put up a valiant fight, absolutely wigging the fuck out, struggling violently under my grasp. But alas, it wasn’t enough.

*SHHHLOOOR-POP!*

[You have torn the core from Blue Slime Lvl 1! Fatal Blow! You have defeated Blue Slime Lvl 1!]

I dropped Lightning in a Bottle as soon as I got the notification. No need to waste all that HP when I wasn’t actively fighting.

Speaking of.

My eyes flicked to the corner of my vision, checking my HP and MP levels.

HP: 240/360

MP: 225/750

I winced as I looked at the full thirty percent of health missing. Burning pain in my muscles made itself known as the euphoric, pain reducing rush from Lightning in a Bottle faded. All that damage for like ten seconds of action and a few punches. Part of me just had to chuckle at that. I was more dangerous to myself than these monsters were.

With the other two slimes out of the way, I turned my focus towards the remaining threat. The fat green slime was about forty feet away now, slowly plodding towards me. I probably had ten seconds or so before it got close enough to attack me. Plenty of time for a potion.

Slinging my satchel down off of my back, I shoved my arm in its mouth and concentrated on pulling out one of the many Greater Potions I had. There was a clink as my metal clad fingers wrapped around a glass bottle, which I yanked out.

I popped the gold colored cap and brought it to my lips to drink.

Liquid fire washed over me, drenching my left shoulder and side of my face in blinding pain.

“Auuuuugh!!”

I seized in pain, the potion pouring out over my face impotently. The glass bottle crunched to pieces as I fell to my hands and knees, crushing it.

[You have been struck by Green Slime Lvl 3’s Acid Spit ability for 34 Acid damage. Remaining HP: 206/360.]

A tiny icon flash in the upper left of my vision, just under my MP bar. It was a cartoon-y version of myself, screaming and covered in green ooze. There was a small 10 next to it.

[You are now Partly Engulfed. Effect: The green acid covering you deals 7 Acid damage per second for 10 seconds.]

Chosen Emmanuel, I recommend you stop, drop, and roll.

I did so without hesitation, throwing myself forward into the thick green grass face first. As I hit the ground, I frantically rolled to the right, having enough presence of mind to at least make sure I go away from the slime.

The grass acted as a sort of rough brush, the hundreds of individual blades each taking a little bit of slime with them as I rolled through. It wasn’t the most efficient, but it worked, the burning pain dropping in intensity every second. After eight seconds of rolling, with two seconds left on the status timer, the System decided I’d gotten enough of the slime off of myself, and the status icon faded away along with the rest of the burn.

Remaining HP: 150/360

I came to a halt, shoving myself up off the ground and back into a standing position. Then I promptly stumbled forward as a new little icon—me with a ring of stars circling my head—appeared under my MP bar in place of the last one.

[You are Dizzy. Effect: -50% AGI, loss of equilibrium for ten seconds.]

My vision spun, and it suddenly became very difficult to tell where I was putting my feet. I walked forward anyway, intent on opening up more space between me and the slime. Thankfully, I managed to avoid taking a tumble back into the grasses, and as soon as the ten seconds were up, the status icon went away. With it, both my vision and my sense of balance were restored in full.

Immediately, I started scanning around for the green slime. Wasn’t gonna let that motherfucker get another surprise attack on me, no sir.

You know, Syscile, speaking of. It would have been really helpful to know that thing was able to shoot slime at me BEFORE getting shot.

My sincerest apologies, Chosen Emmanuel. The knowledge that I am privileged to share with you is limited by the level of your Examine ability. Otherwise, I am only allowed to answer questions that you directly ask. It is a sort of measure against cheating, in order to prevent you from automatically knowing everything about every enemy and obstacle you come across.

Oh. I’m……not really sure that makes sense to me. Kind of seems to defeat the purpose of having a Guide that knows everything, right? I kinda figured I'd get all the knowledge upfront? But anyway, if that’s the rules, never mind, no need to apologize. Sorry for getting snippy.

I spotted and locked on to the green slime, currently sitting about thirty feet in front of me.

Was it a little smaller than before? I couldn’t tell.

The slime’s core, a mottled cluster of dark yellow nerves as opposed to the red core of the blue slime’s, floated near the top of the ooze. It pulsed softly, slowly expanding and contracting as if it were breathing.

I backed up a few steps, my hand reaching towards my back for my satchel. My MP was regenerating plenty fast, but my HP would never regen enough on its own. I needed to get a potion in me before I tried to tackle that last bastard.

But. My back was distinctly lacking in satchel.

Damnit, that’s right. I fucking dropped it when the slime’s attack hit me! With all the rolling I did right afterward, I didn’t even have a clue where it could be. That was not good.

The slime shuddered. The core began to pulse faster, and faster. The area around the core began to grow, bulging out of the Green Slime’s ‘head’ like a tumor.

Shit. What’s that? It gonna shoot slime at me again?

The answer was yes. The bulge continued to grow, mass moving up from the lower half of the slime to join it. Once it grew to about fifteen percent of the Green Slime’s total size, the slime shook wildly, reared back, and flung the giant snot orb directly at me.

Fortunately, the slime orb flew slowly, a lazily lobbed shot rather than the fastball I’d been expecting. Now that I actually knew it was coming, dodging it was as simple as a quick step-and-roll to the right, using the momentum to easily get right back on my feet. My eyes never once left the slime.

The glob of slime spattered onto the ground a foot and a half away from me, throwing droplets of acid out in a wide radius. Some landed on my leather pants, eating tiny holes in them, but not causing me any actual damage.

After blowing its load, the Green Slime went still, its yellow core pulsing slowly once more. Okay, it definitely was smaller now, an obvious result of using its own mass. But I could see dark bubbling green fluid seeping out of the core and melding back into the main body of the slime, slowly building it back up to size.

Huh. Alright Syscile, can you confirm this for me then? That slime is regenerating, right?

Correct. When a slime uses its own body mass to attack, or loses mass due to damage, the slime’s maximum HP, attack, and defense values will all decrease proportionally, making it weaker and more vulnerable. However, by using magical energy stored in the core, a slime is able to rapidly produce replacement body mass. The more powerful the slime, the faster the process is. A green slime regenerates mass at a rate of .5% per second.

Got it. Thanks.

Well, that was useful information, but how was I supposed to put it to use? Knowing that the green slime would start eating me and my equipment on contact, I definitely didn’t want to punch the fucking thing. Bombing it would work wonderfully, but without my satchel, I didn’t have any bombs on me right now.

I needed some other kind of ranged wep—

I looked down at my left hand, wrapped in chain. Five foot of chain. That was technically ranged, right? I mean, five feet isn’t a huge range, but it’s better than nothing.

I unraveled the chain, hefting it in my hands. I hadn’t actually taken a good look at it yet, but it looked tough. Each dark grey link was hefty, and thick. The entire thing probably weighed about ten pounds. I bet the acid wouldn’t dissolve it so easily either.

Hahaha, yeah, fuck it. I’m gonna chain-whip this bastard to death.

All that thinkin’ took about ten seconds, during which the slime regenerated about five percent of its missing body mass.

Taking a deep breath, I charged the slime, holding the end of the heavy chain with both hands like the hilt of a sword. The slime didn’t budge an inch, continuing to focus on rebuilding its body.

Once in range, I leapt into the air, swinging my arms over my head and bringing the chain down in a massive vertical slam. The entire weight of the chain fully impacted the front of the slime with a mighty squelch.

[You hit Green Slime Lvl 3 with chain attack for 9 total damage. Remaining HP: 171/180]

There was a splash of slime as the chain connected. Heavy drops of acid sprayed out every which way, including through the gaps in the middle of the chain links. Some landed on my bare face, burning like a real sonuvabitch.

[Slime droplets have hit your face for 4 damage. Remaining HP: 146/360]

I hissed as my face sizzled, ripping my chain from the slime’s body, turning so I could avoid the chunk of slime it tore out with it.

[Green Slime takes 2 damage. Remaining HP: 169/180]

I slammed the chain down again.

Again.

Again.

Over and over and over, that thick metal chain crashed into the green slime. Every impact came with a squelch, and a new misting of acid all over my face.

It hurt. My HP dropped with every attack I made. But the slime’s HP dropped faster. With every hit, the giant pile of ooze lost more and more of its mass as I liberally beat the hell out of it.

The slime fought back, of course, lashing out at me with short tentacle like protrusions, or surging forward in an attempt to swallow me whole. Unfortunately for the green slime, it was even slower than the blues, and I was able to easily evade its attacks even in my normal form.

I lost count of how many times I hit it, but by the time it was dead, it was more of a sad green paste than anything resembling a coherent monster.

[You have dealt 11 damage to Green Slime Lvl 3. Remaining HP: 0/140. You have defeated Green Slime Lvl 3!]

[Remaining HP: 45/360.]

I threw my now acid coated chain onto the ground, then let out a mighty roar of victory as new notifications began pouring in, self-filing into their little bubble down in the bottom right corner of my vision.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Take THAT motherfucker!”

Loud flapping of wings made me turn around to find Brygid landing behind me with a wave. Her face was all smiles at first, until she got a good look at me. “Hey Emmanuel! Nice victory cry—holy fuck dude! What the hell happened?!”

My body heaved with exertion as I went over my side of the fight. I was covered in acid burns, blood dripping off my face like sweat.

“Holy hell, man. You could have called for some help, you know. I’m practically tailor-made to fight slimes.”

I shrugged, weakly waving it away. “If I really, really thought I needed it, I would have. I feel like I had it under control though.” My legs went weak just as I said that, and I stumbled forward, crashing into Brygid.

She quirked a concerned eyebrow at me as she gently put me back on my feet. “Uhhh, no? Doesn’t look like you did. Here man, have a little pick me up.”

Brygid put her left hand on my shoulder and closed her eyes. Soft particles of red light surrounded her, a single feather breaking off of her wing tips and floating over my head. The feather dissolved, and those same red particles rained down on me. I was enveloped in soothing warmth, the red light sinking down into my injuries. The sweet, slightly spicy smell of cinnamon began wafting through my nose, some of the lighter wounds on me closing right up.

I took a deep whiff. Mmm. Loved that smell.

[Brygid Jewel has cast Cinna-mend on you. Recover 33 HP. Total HP: 78/360]

Not much HP, but at least my face didn’t burn as badly. “Ahhh, that does feel a bit better. Thanks Brygid. Now give me just a second to find my freakin’ bag.”

Brygid obliged, chuckling and walking away to loot all the slimes. As far as I knew, slime drops weren’t very useful for anything but making potions, but neither one of us had any Alchemy skills. Still, monster materials always sold for at least a couple coppers, so it wasn’t totally worthless.

Scouring the deep carpet of grass for my satchel was easier said than done. Especially because after about five minutes of searching with no luck, some sort of horrible siren wail began blaring through my head.