The Nightshade Terror (BL Harem)

Now, as much as Valentius would have loved to stay there, in that clearing, with the strange mana berry bush, he could not.

The place had no protection from the elements. What was more, it was too open, too close to Wendel, the town he had run away from.

He trudged away from any and all deer trails. Not wanting to leave any traces of his presence.

The instructor back at the academy had told them that if there was a path, a dirt one, in a dungeon, then they might as well scale the walls.

Because the mobs were on their trail.

And if they weren't, then the core was using mana tracers in the dirt to send them their way.

The guards were no mobs. But they did have hunting hounds.

Valentius didn't want to risk it.

The bottomless backpack was a reassuring weight on his back. For some reason, the strange system from the beginning was behaving strangely now.

He could recognize it was her by the fact that she liked to write in red from time to time.

Now, he wasn't certain that it was a she, but he didn't want to call the system an it.

The other handwriting, the kinder one, was probably a he. Or so he thought.

Not that the man wrote to him often.

 Only when Valentius said something that had to do with herbs, explaining it all in his own words, as simple as they were.

The book was in the backpack, safe from the elements.

As soon as Valentius thought that, a raindrop fell on his nose. He hurried along the rock formation he was walking around.

 There were mushrooms growing inside, but none of them were Mammoth's Hoof. Something that he could actually eat.

But… if he was lucky, and those mushrooms were native to the forest of Wendel, then he could feast the next morning!

They were big, and white, and had this meaty inside!

Perfect for grilling!

He paused. Fingers twitching.

Should he write that in the book? What if the kind stranger didn't know? What if he got lost and didn't have anything to eat and ate a mushroom which was either blue or red or… black?

Another raindrop fell on Valentius' nose, followed by another, this one falling faster than the one before it.

"No time for writing in books! If I get sick now, I'll die!" he took off running. Using his mana, boasted by the berries he had harvested from the poor bush which now looked like a plucked chicken, Valentius let his feet take him up the formation.

Hoping for an empty cave.

He was just about to consider trying to get out of the forest and into the fields, when he saw it: a glowing trunk!

"Gnomes?" The little creatures were no serfs, unlike everyone who lived in these lands.

They hid in the forest, which was the reason, all whispered, why the lord hunted every day.

But what if they didn't let him in? What if they let him get hit by lightning, or, if he survived, get sick and die in a ditch?

Suddenly, the life Adam had offered him, the life in Rock's Nest, a village named after a bird so massive, it blocked out the sky, sounded like a dream.

"Be a hero!" Valentius whispered.

He wanted to yell it, but something seemed strange about this clearing.

First the rock formation, and now a gnome trunk?

He made a step backwards. Trying to appear so, as if he wanted to pick up a mushroom.

Another raindrop touched his nose. He rubbed it clean. His fingers came out sticky…

Slimes!

Valentius jumped to the side, his heart racing!

The yelling of his least favorite instructor, a hag so vile that she had not even introduced herself and might have actually been a hag, rang in his ears:

"Slimes are mindless. But, oh, they are like sharks! If they smell blood, oh, and I do hope they do because all of you are a waste of air!" she had stopped to cough then, as everyone cowered.

There had been a girl who had told her once that she was a waste of air.

That girl had been taken out of the room holding her right arm in her left, blood dripping from the ruin of her shoulder.

 The first red flag Valentius had ignored. The first of many.

"You are done for! Now, mask your bloody stench!"

The chubby boy knew that he smelt of sweat. He had been walking, quickly, at that, the entire day. The clearing hadn't had water. So, he hadn't bathed, either.

The only thing he had done was to rub the leaves of the mana berry bush on his skin. They had smelt nice.

He attempted to make himself as small as possible. To merge with the wall.

The only thing the boy knew for certain was that he didn't want to die alone.

The slimes were moving on the ceiling.

Their tentacles had better sense of smell than the hunting hound of a king, or so the hag had told them.

A true terror. Something everyone thought could be defeated with a well-placed kick to the head.

But…

Valentius had spoken with the woman after that class. He hadn't believed her.

Until he saw the ruin which was her foot. Something that was all bubbling still. So, as if there had been acid spilled on it! And the acid had not been washed away!

As if the poison of the slime was still active!

But…

Wait…

He touched his nose. It was sticky, but it wasn't dissolving!

"Huh?" He asked himself, as he decided to do something stupid.

A slime nucleus was worth a fortune! Even a single one could make sure that one could live in a tavern for at least a month.

Valentius took a hold of a fallen branch next to him. It was rotting. Not fit to kill a rat, much less a horror made from acid.

Valentius emptied the handkerchief where he kept the mana berries. He wrapped it around his face.

He was blind. But he didn't need his sight to do it!

He just needed courage!

He aimed over his head. Using mana to throw the branch up! One of the slimes splattered, covering him in goo!

The acid soaking in his clothes, in his skin, in his blood.

And yet… he continued to breathe.