I begin walking back out of the tree line once more towards the run down doorway, and reach there in few minutes. Looking around to locate the slimes I see them around 40 feet away, 1 mutated slime, 3 normal slimes, and a smaller greener slime. 'Is that a baby slime. It doesn't matter, it will die all the same.' I look to my right and see a corridor collapsed 15 feet into it, and I position myself at its entrance so I will not get attacked from behind again. I then begin my new chant, "Arrows of flame, fly forward and pierce through my enemies; Multiple Fire Arrows." Three arrows fly forward from my staff, two of which hit the mutant slime which is the most threatening, and the third hits one of the normal slimes, and the slimes I hit immediately evaporate. The remaining slimes look towards me and the small slime lets out a small screeching sound, and the two remaining normal slimes charge towards me, with the small one charges behind them, but it seems to be at least twice the speed of the normal ones. Backing deeper into the corridor, I start up my chant and three arrows fly forward once again, one for each slime. The two normal slimes each get hit but the smaller one hides behind a pile of rubble, which takes the fire arrow for it. "Damn." 'I should kill it in the corridor, where there is nowhere for it to hide.'

I run back into the corridor and reach the collapsed part which seals off the rest of the passage. Turning my back to the rubble, I once again turn towards the small slime which is 20 feet behind me. It keeps coming towards me, but stops for a moment at the entrance to the corridor, before charging even faster than before. I use my chant again as fast as possible, and one arrows flies forward hitting the slime 2 feet away from me, but it continues rolling towards me still carrying its momentum. As I shift towards the side to dodge it, it slams the pile of rubble and flops down. Looking down at it, it is still alive, but I no longer have any mana for a spell, so lifting up my staff I whack it as hard as I can. *squelch*

Suddenly the slime begins vibrating and lets out a screech as loud as anything I've ever heard. "Kreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..." I cover my ears as fast as I can but it does little to help, as the sound is too loud for it to have any noticeable effect. I take up my staff again and whack it, which stops it screech for a short time, but the slime begins it again. I whack it again and again and again, until finally after what seemed like a dozen strikes with my staff, whatever was holding the slime together stops working and it turns into a puddle on the stone ground.

I drop down to the floor, lean up against the wall and let out a deep breath, that I was apparently holding in during the battle. 'It's finally over, but what was that screech.' I then reach my hands to my ears and feel around to see if they are still fine, but I touch a liquid flowing from my ears. Moving my hand back in front of me, I can see blood on my fingertips. 'That's not good. "Personal Profile."'

Name: Ryan Mitchel Race: Human Age: 23 Sex: Male Level: 0 Stat Points: 0 Gold: 2 Titles: N/A Stats: HP:70/90 HP Regeneration: 1.1% per 5 Minutes SP:105/120 SP Regeneration: 1.1% per 5 Minutes MP: 0/140 MP Regeneration: 1.5% per 5 Minutes Critical Hit Chance: 0% Physical Resistance: 0.11% Magical Resistance: 0.15% Affliction Resistance: 0.35% Vitality: 9 Stamina: 12 Constitution: 11 Intelligence: 14 Wisdom: 15 Luck: 0 Skills: Stealth Interface Fire Creation Personal Abilities: The Curse of Cronus Afflictions: The Conquerors "Encouragement" Small Acid Burn Ruptured Eardrum

'"Identify."'

Ruptured Eardrum Affliction Rank: D Cuts HP by 10 making it unable to be regenerated. Impairs hearing by 50%. (For example, if the maximum distance you could hear an enemy running towards you is 50 feet, the distance you would be able to hear them while being affected by this affliction is 25 feet.) Heals naturally after 28 days. Using healing items or healing spells can this affliction be healed. Time left until healed: 671:59:55

'That's going to become a problem, in the future.', I inwardly mutter. I back to the slimes' corpses in the courtyard to see if they dropped any cores so that I might be able to heal my ear. After examining where all the slimes died, I came up with no rewards besides 6 gold coins. After absorbing them, bringing my gold counter up to 8, I start walking back to the river to get some water, to replenish what I've lost from all the trekking so far.

Siting down by the, I dip my left leg into the water, to cool my burn. *Ah* 'That's nice.' After drinking some of the fresh water from the river I stand back up and walk back into the courtyard to see what I can find. Walking over the fallen copper doors and looking back into the corridor where the small slime fell, I remember that I did not check it for a core. As I reach the puddle on the ground I see a small core in the pule of rubble. Picking it up I mutter, "Identify."

Commander Slime Core

The core of a deceased commander slime that has a small chance of dropping when it is killed.

When consumed, it has an extremely small chance of granting a skill related to one of the commander slime's abilities.

'Let's see if I'm lucky. Maybe I'll get that screeching skill.' Placing the core in my mouth it soon starts dissolving, and my lips pucker form how much more sour it is than the other slimes' cores. 'It's like I'm eating a lemon.' After it flowed down into my stomach, I was granted... nothing. 'It's like I'm back at the casino again.' *sigh* As I turn around I see a group of at least 30 slimes with a couple mutant ones in the group, all rolling towards me.

'Fuck, fuck, fuck.' I point my staff at them and try to chant, but I only have 6 mana, not enough to summon any arrows. Hurriedly I turn around and start trying to move the pile of rubble as fast as I can. Numerous sounds of gravel and sand hitting the stone floor can be heard, but my movements do nothing more than futilely injuring my hands.

My hands abruptly stop moving. "God damn it." Looking down at my dirty, scraped, and shivering hands, I see one of my fingernails peeled back, and the bright red nailbed below is revealed to me. Turning back around I see the slimes are almost upon me. I kneel down and start pleading to god and crying, "Please god, have mercy on me. Don't let this happen to me.", but my cries go unanswered. Feeling a burning sensation of my feet I scramble away from the slimes and back up as far as I can go in the corridor.

The slimes keep rolling closer and closer, until they are touching me, burning me, dissolving me, eating me, where I stand. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA." I scream until all the air leaves my lungs, and look back down and I can see my bones through the tinted green liquid that makes up the slime. Breathing heavily, I fall down to my knees and then to my back. I close my eyes and hope that it will all end soon, but even then my wishes are not granted, as the slimes slowly move covering my whole body, and eating it.

My eyes start bulging from all the pain, but I force them to stay closed, so I don't have to see my body dissolving before me. After a short time the pain starts moving upwards again to my face. 'No, no, no, no, no.' Soon I start seeing specs of green in the darkness behind my eyelids, and a searing pain can be felt from my eyes. 'The slimes are dissolving my eyelids. NO NO NO NO NO.' A scream escapes from my mouth once again, but my mouth is soon filled with slime, and my tongue lips and cheeks start dissolving. Soon the slime flows down into my throat, engulfing everything in my body in pain. I start spasming from all the pain as my eyes roll back into my head. 'I'm going to die here.', I think before passing out.

***

I wake up from my sleep with a cold sweat to a large crowd of people surrounding me. Looking around at the seemingly endless crowd of people, and a man suddenly appears above the crowd calling for our attention.

Staring at his face I mutter, "It wasn't a dream."