Races: Online

Darkness permeated everything and so the intruder grasped and thrashed in his spot. His dagger had been plucked out and spat out of the Black Slime's body as it began to trudge itself forward across the hallway. Whenever it 'consumed' something, its weight and density increased and it slunk slowly across the floor. In its core was the protocols left by its and right now it was order to expel this newcomer back into the chambers.

But then it paused. Within itself the slime began to feel the person continue to thrash and move as if trying to attack it. Almost ticklish. Their jabs and movements were sluggish, the individual was still struggling.

.. .

It had overcome his entire body. Everything from his head to the soles of his feet were covered in this—it felt like he was going through some wretched trial. Gliding and wriggling through his skin, it was pretty damn invasive. But there was no time to think about this right now. He had ingested some of it but now he was holding his breath. 

And he was losing air in his lungs.

Han blindedly started to look for the core within the Black Slime's body. It was like he was submerged under water as it was slippery, cool and yet there were also moments of the viscosity changing as if he was moving through nothing but thin pockets of air. 

The Black Slime was made of three elements, darkness, shadows and slime. And that had been the reason why he was struggling inside of it except for the shadow or darkness aspect. It was giving him some leeway to move through this creature's body quicker and with some freedom.

Until finally he grabbed ahold of something… but it didn't feel like the core. It was somewhat long and thin and it was the exact opposite of what he expected a core to be. He had been searching for something spherical or even a cube. What was this—Inspect.

And though he kept his eyes shut, the voice spoke of what it was in his ears. No, it felt like it had imprinted itself into his mind and that was amidst him getting dizzy from the lack of air.

[ Enchanter's Toolstick - the perfect multifunctional item for every Enchanter. Wonderful in measuring, tinkering, building or tampering with magic arrays, fields, constructs, charms and other types of enchantments! —and that's not all! Activate the weapon fuction and be amazed! Easy to use and highly affordable for a good price of— ]

It was an overload of information that damn sounded like an advertisment and it had clung to his brain much more than all the courses he took in university. He didn't even have time to question it, he was losing too much air, he tried to activate it. Did it need something like a password or spell? Although he had some of the slime thing wriggling in his ear—he finally heard a click and then a whirring sound.

The whirring mixed in with the sound of a whirstle and a bird chirping loudly. And though his eyes were shut, a brightness seared through his eyelids. He moved the toolstick and he felt it moved through the slime's body as if it was clear water. He propelled himself forward with his good leg and then bursted out and felt fresh air on his face. He gasped and took in the air like a dying man and right before he fell flat, his feet made contact with the floor. His [ Basic Reflexes ] doing its job as he opened his eyes to see the weapon in his hand.

He had thankfully not hit himself with the weapon this time and the sight in front of him made his jaw drop for a moment. This was a freaking—

[ Enchanter's Toolstick (Weapon Mode: Energy Saber) Tear through pesky thieves and through your competitor's own enchanted objects with a pure energy saber! This weapon is powered by the special crystalline alloy filled in the stick. Rechargeable. ]

"Energy saber—?" He fought the urge to laugh at how an 'Enchanter' could have this kind of overpowered weapon but—he tore his gaze back to the Black Slime and watched its injuries. It had been split in the middle as he had cut and tore his way through it. Now was the time to finish it off, he rushed forward and began to hack at the creature.

Pieces or parts of the slime went flying into every direction as he continued to hack at it. It was better to put its body parts too far away from each other in the likelihood of it reforming itself as he searched for the sound of a crack or something breaking. Where was the core?

He was beginning to feel tired. His arm was feeling sore as he panted and wiped his face to rid himself of the slime parts. He caught his breath and stopped when he saw something move from all the black puddles he had created from tearing the entire Black Slime apart. 

Han closed the Enchanter's Toolstick as he moved forward and caught it in his hand. It was so small and tiny that he had almost missed it—amidst all the slicing, the core of the slime had survived. It might have probably moved the core around to survive and attempted to stealthily move away.

It would have worked if he wasn't looking.

"Hah! Not so fast you squirt, I ain't done with you—" He choked as the slime threw a part of its slimey part into his mouth and he coughed it up. He trapped it in his hand and held it an arm's length as he shot it a dirty look. This thing was a small menace. 

Despite only having some of its body around the core, the miniature black slime waved around tiny black tendrils at him in warning. And before it could do anything else and try to attack or escape—Han opened his Inventory and slammed the Black Slime into it.

He watched the slime vanish from his eyes and hand as it reappeared in his Inventory. 

[ Tiny Black Slime x 1 ]

Han smirked for a moment as he felt a bit smug about his discovery—he didn't exactly expect it but his Inventory could trap what was practically a living thing in it. And also that tiny black menace could no longer attack him or chuck its extra slime into his throat. "Phew, that's a relief." 

If it had been any smarter, it could have force shoved its slime body down his throat and choke him to death. He had been half afraid of that thing happening but it was already over. 

He was safe.

The young man tossed a look around the empty hallway as he awaited for something. He tapped his foot. There was no experience points for him to gain or what? Did he need to kill the thing? Han frowned as he closed the Inventory Screen for a moment. He had no time to mess around, he needed to find both Timothy and Ellynn fast.

Although… Han began to move and felt some stab of pain in his leg. His gaze lowered down at the leg he had stabbed earlier and tried not to retch at the sight of the black slime's body coating and somewhat inside his wound. If it had been wriggling, he would have retched then and there. He shuddered as he thought about scooping it all out of his leg but stopped.

Concentrate.

Now was not the time for that.

Instead he looked at the Enchanter's Toolstick in his hand and decided he was going to keep this thing for him as he placed it in his pocket. And then he trudged backwards to pick up the daggers that the Black Slime had thrown out earlier—this two daggers cost him two gold!

His mother didn't teach him to waste anything!

Once he finally was done retrieving his main weapons, he was good to go. The young man continued forward and tried not to think about his stabbed leg and the black stuff in his leg. "I should have bought healing potions when I was in the city." He grumbled to himself as he summoned the Academy's map and took note of his friend's location. 

The blue dot remained in place. "Huh? He hasn't moved from his spot at all? Did he encounter something?" He wasn't sure. "Does this map show monsters if they're there? Would be pretty useful," He remarked and walked as fast as he could without straining his injured leg. Not that it hurt that much now…

He didn't want to think that the black slime had healing properties—he wasn't going to ingest it. "Did Timothy maybe realize I was here and is waiting for me with a healing potion in hand?" He said again and then laughed at that the thought. As if the guy was going to do something like that.

Still if they were standing around like that, something was wrong. He needed to hurry up and check what happened to him. Han tried to run and then felt himself wobble and caught himself before he tripped. He winced and continued to move until he blinked. His vision turned muddled. He didn't lose much blood did he?

There wasn't some kind of notification popping about it either.

He continued to walk forward as the edges of his sight was darkening. He tried to resist it but somehow his [ Will of the Player ] wasn't working right now. What was happening? He looked down at his leg and wondered if this was the effect of the slime's darkness aspect. He placed one dagger into his inventory as he tried to scrape some off with his hand.

Until he collapsed down into the floor.