1.4 Rude Wake up Call
At first Isran was upset that the sleeping bag was not as comfortable as she had hoped. She spent the night, falling in and out of sleep. But if she had slept the way she wanted she would have missed the sound of malevolent slime outside her tent.
She had been about to check if the sun was out, not well rested but rested enough to walk through the damp forest for a few hours.
Two blue slimes were hopping around, they didn’t seem to be looking for anything and didn’t seem particularly intelligent enough to realize she was in the tent. They were smaller than the one she had fought the previous day and from what she could see had fewer eyes.
Each hop was followed by a squelching sound and the slime continued to hop around. As Isran quietly picked her sword she wondered if the slime could sense a presence but weren’t intelligent enough to realize where she was.
She could’ve waited the slime out. They would definitely eventually get bored and hop away. But leveling up the previous day had excited Isran. As scary as battle had been she wanted to level up and test her new skill.
There was no use trying to be sneaky. The slime were fast and she couldn’t afford to be spotted in a vulnerable position. Isran ran out of the tent and towards the closest slime.
Her sword felt lighter in her hand and an artificial sense of familiarity washed over her as she approached the slime.
The viscous blue monster spotted her just as she struck low, It rolled away with less speed than its green counterpart. Isran, in a move that could only be attributed to her new skill, swiped her sword in the direction the slime rolled.
She was close enough and the swipe was executed well enough that the slime split in half. A notification popped up as she turned to face the other slime.
CONGRATULATIONS
MALEVOLENT SLIME DEFEATED
EXP POINTS AWARDED
Quickly dismissing the message Isran ran towards the second slime. Her severe lack of skill introduced itself once more when a flash of blue whacked her across her face.
Her run disrupted, she spun before falling to the ground, her sword still in hand.
“Another slime? Fuck!”
Isran’s face stung. She really hoped it wasn’t melting. The force of the hit together with whatever damage the slime dealt was a very painful experience.
Just as she scrambled to her feet both slime launched themselves at her. Their lack of speed as compared to the green slime from the day before showed again when Isran dodged one and dove out of the way of the other.
She couldn’t stay on the ground too long. The slime were fast and would keep flinging themselves at her no matter her position.
Isran briefly thought about launching her sword at one enemy but a third slime hopping out of the bushes made her immediately drop that idiotic idea.
The slime launched themselves at her at the same time. Their eyes disappeared in the blur. Isran spun to the side and jabbed at the viscous projectiles. She missed her stab but one landed on a sharp branch her body had been obscuring.
The other two quickly oriented themselves and launched again.
Isran swatted one slime away with the flat side of her sword and hoped there weren’t more. Getting swarmed by the monsters would be certain death, especially at such a low level.
The slime recovered quickly, but before Isran could attack it again the second slime connected with her free arm.
“Fuck!” Isran hissed at the burning sensation the attached slime caused. It felt like her hand was over a low heat with the heat steadily rising.
The other slime took advantage of her pain to attack her as well. It engulfed her hand holding her sword and Isran cried out in pain.
Pushing her way through the pain, Isran stabbed the slime latched onto her arm. It died instantly and fell off her body. Not bothering to look at her injured arm she ran to the tree line and slammed her hand against one particularly thick tree.
Once, twice, three times. The slime finally slid off her hand.
CONGRATULATIONS
MALEVOLENT SLIME DEFEATED
EXP POINTS AWARDED
CONGRATULATIONS
MALEVOLENT SLIME DEFEATED
EXP POINTS AWARDED
Isran felt tears sting her eyes as she dismissed the notification. Her hand was red and some blue streaks—left behind by the slime—dotted some spots.
Before she could look at the damage on her other arm a squelching sound came from a tree a few feet in front of her.
The slime that had impaled itself earlier hadn’t died.
With all the rage of being woken up to fight for her life Isran, lifted her sword--her hand screaming in protest--and killed the slime. Hacking away at it and taking the branch with her.
CONGRATULATIONS
MALEVOLENT SLIME DEFEATED
EXP POINTS AWARDED
“Fuck.” The skin on her forearm was soft and slightly sagging, red. Some raised skin. And the damn slime remains.
KNIGHT OF GRATENESS REACHED
LEVEL 3
Isran dismissed the message and went back to the tent. There were no new notifications so she guessed level three offered nothing.
She had to leave the clearing. The slime were smart enough to figure out that a clearing meant someone was there.
Packing up the tent and other items was difficult with her hurt arm and hand but Isran didn’t let that deter her. She had to leave the forest and find help, before she left she opened her status sheet to check her stats.
NAME: ISRAN THE GREAT
RACE: HUMAN
PRIMARY CLASS: WARRIOR
SECONDARY CLASS: KNIGHT
STRENGTH: 6
DEXTERITY: 5
SPEED: 5
ENERGY: 5
ENDURANCE: 5
SPECIFIC CLASS (1): KNIGHT OF GREATNESS [3]
SPECIFIC CLASS (2): NONE
HEALTH: 69/100 MANA: 0/0
Isran winced at her health. It wasn’t half but it was a lot. 29 health points was too much for her to not be worried. She hadn’t checked her status sheet when she woke up so she had no idea whether she recovered health while she slept or not.
Isran left the bag with the monster parts. She was sure it was valuable in some sense but she couldn’t carry it if she was taking her shield. And after what happened that morning Isran was definitely taking her shield.
She put the bag with food in the bag with the papers then put that in her duffel bag and rolled the sleeping bag and tent up. After the tent was rolled up she found a bag that was big enough to store the tent, the sleeping bag, and the pillow underneath the tent.
Isran walked in the forest for hours. She had no real sense of time but she started counting. She had been walking for at least two hours and the forest was still not very bright.
She encountered a blue slime and quickly stabbed it from behind. The monster was busy stealing an eye from a dead person. Isran searched the body but found nothing.
Just as she was about to stop searching she finally found a way out.