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Chapter 4 - Slime
🕑 Added 2024-10-26 02:45:28 +0000 UTCUnprepared as gravity reasserted itself, Alex's knees buckled as his feet hit the ground. He stumbled forward and just barely caught himself. Sweet, clean air filled his lungs. It was nothing like Hoboken's usual mix of city smells.
What the actual fuck did I just do?
His already racing heart threatened to burst from his chest as he took in the drastically changed scenery. He clutched the tie tighter, pressing it against his sternum. Tall grass swayed around his legs while bright blue and purple wildflowers dotted the surrounding rolling hills.
A warm breeze blew that felt like early summer in his hometown, not the cutting November cold that it should be. As it picked up and his jacket fluttered, he saw the waves of tall grass shift and sway.
"This can't be real." His voice came out as nothing more than a whisper. He looked down; the grass rustled against his slacks, and he reached down to touch it. The blades felt real enough, cool and slightly damp against his fingertips.
Get it together. Focus on what's actually here, not what should be.
A warm breeze carried sweet and earthy scents. There was no trace of car exhaust or the sewer smell that tended to rise on the warm currents during the cold months. He couldn't hear any distant sirens or honking horns.
Alex lifted his gaze to the sky and froze. Two suns hung overhead. One was a familiar yellow-white while the other was smaller and tinged with an orange that didn't look real. At the same height as the towering pine trees, he saw massive crystals floating through the air. They spun slowly and their multi-surface texture caught the light from the colored suns and cast intricate patterns down onto the grass below.
With his eyes drawn toward the sky, he noted that it was a deeper blue than he'd ever seen. Closer to what he would expect to see of the deep ocean, rather than the light blue of the sky. There were only a few clouds, but they were about the only thing that looked normal to Alex.
This is insane. Maybe the coffee this morning was spiked. Am I having some sort of breakdown?
The memory of his work project deadline flickered through his mind. He pushed the thought away easily as his gaze was drawn upward once again. He took a few hesitant steps forward as he looked at the mesmerizing crystals. They reminded him of a much older work project that he'd helped with, where he'd spent hours perfecting the logo for some new-age crystal healing shop.
"That's not helping," he muttered and pushed all the thoughts of work aside. It wasn't time for work. It was time for… What exactly?
Survival? Adventure? A complete and total mental breakdown?
The grass moved in time with the green sea. Alex took another deep breath of clean air and felt the reality of the situation beginning to press down on him. The articles weren't conspiracy theories or some twisted joke. The videos weren't edited or AI-generated. He'd taken a single step and arrived in a completely different world.
He put the tie from his hand into his pocket and removed his cell phone from the other. He looked down to see the screen was cracked where he'd dropped it before entering, though just like one of the articles said, the screen was blank and he was unable to turn it on. He looked at his watch and saw that it was still working, the mechanical wristwatch continuing to function without problems.
Looking over his shoulder, Alex saw the blue swirling portal of magic looming behind him. He knew that he could turn back now, and he could likely run away from the area before anyone arrived at the scene.
No. No, don't chicken out now. This is my chance to break out of this shitty life.
He shook his head and turned his back to the portal.
His information was spotty at best, a hodgepodge of gossip articles and people in the comment section speaking as if they were experts on the subject. One thing that was consistent, though, was that he needed to kill something to awaken. The thought made his stomach turn.
I pick color pallets and design logos. I'm not exactly equipped for murder, even if it is a monster. I've never even been in a fist fight before.
Alex gave a nervous chuckle as he ran a hand through his hair.
He looked around his surroundings once more, looking past the gently rolling hills, to the edge of the fields. About a football field's length away in every direction, encircling the meadow, was a tree line.
Alex could swear that dark shapes moved between the trees, but at his current distance, they could have been shadows or branches swaying in the wind.
Feeling fear grip him, Alex reached an unsteady hand into his pocket as he began walking forward. When his hand gripped the cheap, black ceramic handle of the diner knife, he felt a bit better. He picked a direction at random and began making his way toward the forest line, unsure of what he'd find.
What else did they say? They are almost always basic monsters. Wolves, goblins, various enhanced forest critters.
As he neared the tree line, his imagination ran wild with fears that threatened to send him fleeing back to Hoboken. But just as the excuses in his head grew overwhelming, he caught sight of movement in the grass to his left.
He froze and something shifted the grass stalks, causing them to rustle ominously. Alex's breath caught and he pulled the knife from his pocket to hold in front of himself. There was an awkward moment as he frantically tried to unwrap it from the linen napkin.
As he saw the monster reveal itself, Alex had to hold in the compulsive desire to laugh. To shake out his arms and hands and do something to get rid of his unnecessary stress. A translucent green mass emerged from the grass. It was about the size of a basketball and its gelatinous body seemed to wiggle and reflect the light in odd ways.
"A slime?" The words escaped his lips before he could stop them. He watched as it made a small popping sound, with a bubble escaping its surface and then bounced up and down twice. "Holy shit, it's actually a slime."
His heart began to pick up pace again. He knew this was his chance to awaken—assuming he could actually kill the monster. It bobbed in place, seemingly unaware of his presence.
As he considered how to approach his attack, he felt grateful it was just a slime. The thought of killing any sort of sentient creature made his stomach turn.
Okay, first step is to actually kill it.
Alex gripped the diner knife tighter, then hesitated. He could remember from video games and fantasy novels that slimes were acidic. Getting that stuff on his hands seemed like a terrible first move.
He looked around and his eyes landed on a fallen branch a few meters away near the edge of the tree line. It was long and seemed hefty enough to both allow him to keep distance and swing without fear of breaking. He pocketed the knife and moved over to grab the branch. With the change in temperature, Alex took off the winter jacket and set it down near the wood's edge.
He bent down and scooped up the branch. He tested its weight and gave a short grunt as he did so. It was certainly heavier than it looked, but he gave it a few test swings before nodding and making his way back over to where the slime was.
As he approached the last few feet of the slime, its behavior seemed to change. It jiggled more rapidly and then launched itself toward Alex. He stumbled backward and swung the branch in a wide arc out of reflex. It connected with a wet thwack. He could feel the impact in his arms, but the slime just absorbed the blow and rebounded.
"Shit!" He backpedaled and nearly tripped on his own feet as the soles of his dress shoes threatened to slip on the damp grass.
The slime settled into this pattern: it would wiggle, hop, lunge. After noticing the pattern, Alex managed another hit but felt frustration as the branch just sank into its body before falling back to the ground without taking any kind of real damage.
Think. What else about slimes?
His right arm trembled slightly from the awkward weight of the branch. He used his dress shirt sleeve to wipe the sweat from his brow and could feel the lower part of his shirt beginning to stick to his back.
Some stories mentioned cores. Something solid inside of them.
The slime prepared for another attack, wiggling—its telltale sign before the hop and the launch. Alex retreated a few more steps and could feel a burning sensation in his calves and hamstrings from constantly moving backward.
He looked down at the branch and thought for a solution to his problem. He saw small green globules of the slime still stuck to it. He knew he needed a better weapon. His thoughts drifted back to the knife in his jacket pocket as he bent down to wipe the branch on the grass.
Maybe…
He stood and moved back to his jacket by the tree line. He rummaged through the pocket of his jacket and knelt down before reaching into his back pocket and removing his tie. His fingers shook slightly as he tried to secure the knife to the branch's end. The first attempt was far too loose; the knife nearly fell off. The second attempt wasn't much better, since as soon as he tapped it on the ground the plastic knife handle slipped right through his silk tie.
"Come on," he muttered. His forearms ached, and he retied the knife one more time, this time wrapping it several times and intentionally tying the knot behind the handle of the knife to prevent it from sliding on impact. He knew it wasn't pretty, but he hoped it might work as a makeshift spear.
Standing, he moved back over to where the slime seemed to have completely forgotten about him. As he entered its range again, it attacked. Alex thrust forward with his jury-rigged weapon. The knife penetrated the membrane of the slime with a squelch, but even as he pulled back the slime morphed around the blade and shaft to fall to the ground relatively unharmed. He moved backward, prepared for it to leap again. As he did so, he looked at the blade and saw that the metal had begun to corrode much more quickly than the wood.
Great. Just great.
His breathing grew heavier as he searched for any sign of a core within the beast, but all he could see was an amorphous blob.
Yet within his own growing exhaustion and fear, he felt something unexpected. There was a spark of excitement unlike anything he'd experienced before.
Glancing at his watch, he wondered how long he'd been in the rift and worried that someone might find the portal soon.
Someone's gotta enter the portal soon, right? The police, or maybe-
The slime lunged. Alex thought he was at a safe distance, but the small green monster sailed through the air farther than he'd seen before. His makeshift spear thumped down to the side as he stumbled backward and fell. The grass pressed against his palms and cushioned some of his fall, but the cold slapping sound of the slime landing on his leg sent a chill through him. It latched on, and he could almost immediately feel a tingling sensation in his leg.
"Fuck!" He scrambled to grab the spear and began smacking desperately at the slime. Each hit just caused it to ripple and spread further across his leg and down onto his shoe. In the span of a few heartbeats, the tingling had increased to a burning sensation.
With trembling hands, he fumbled with his belt buckle. He kicked off his right shoe and yanked down his slacks, using both hands to push the pants down over the green creature and past his feet. The dark fabric rolled away, revealing his calf. It was now an angry red with blisters forming and thin rivulets of blood seeping to the surface.
"Oh God. Oh God, holy shit!" Alex stared wide-eyed at his leg and felt like it was becoming harder to breathe. Next to him, the slime wiggled while trapped within the pant leg. He scrambled backward, his heart pounding. Panting, he wiped sweat from his brow and let out a wordless yell. As the sound tapered off, he realized it was more out of a desire to release tension than anything else.
He glanced down at himself. No pants and one shoe. He was unable to shake the feeling of that thing pulsing and wiggling on his leg.
I feel violated somehow.
Looking over at the slime, which now happened to be trapped within his work slacks, he tried to think of what to do next. It still jiggled and moved and reminded him of a time when his ex-girlfriend's cat got trapped under the blankets on her bed. It just sort of wobbled around within the constraints.
"OK, think. Acid. It's acid, right?" Alex looked around for something—anything. He thought about pouring something on it.
Maybe water? Dirt? Would that even work?
The thought entered his mind to get up and leave. This hadn’t gone according to plan and while he hated aspects of his normal life, they weren’t life threatening.
No. They aren’t life-changing, either. Either I change right now, or stay a pathetic doormat forever.
He took some time to search around, looking for a big flat rock. Alex felt crazy scrambling around the field with one shoe and no pants, but at this point, that slime was going down one way or another.
No more being weak and pathetic. No more letting life happen to me. I’m not leaving and losing to something as basic as a slime.
Eventually, he found a rock that had a satisfying weight to it, and the bottom was flat and wide. Returning to the slime, he knelt down and brought the rock up over his head before letting it crash down onto the pant-slime.
The impact reverberated up his arm, and as he lifted the rock, the slime just reformed. It didn’t even seem to notice the attack.
He swung the rock again and again.
And again.
Each time, Alex put every ounce of his strength into it. His arms and lungs burned while sweat dripped down his forehead and into his eyes. Despite this, he didn’t stop. He told himself that he couldn’t stop, not until this thing was dead.
The slime, to its credit, was even more resilient than he thought it would be. It just kept jiggling and bouncing, no matter how many times he hit it.
Come on, you slimy bastard.
Alex swung the rock again, and he was starting to worry that the pants would corrode faster than he could actually kill it. This time, however, something was different. The slime made a strange, gurgling sound, and it shuddered violently under the rock. When it stopped moving, his heavy arms flipped the rock to the side.
He rocked back onto his heels to take some of the weight off of his scratched and dirty knees. Staring down at the slime, his chest continued to heave. The mass of the slime was still there, trapped inside of his pants, but now it wasn't moving. For the first time in what felt like the longest half-hour of his life, it wasn't jiggling.
Wondering what to do next, Alex let his heavy arms rest in his lap. A few moments went by, and then the space within the pants seemed to fade. It was like someone was letting the air out of a pool floaty. The fabric sagged, drooping around the now non-existent form of the slime, leaving behind only a few extra globs of green mucus.
And then something even more strange happened.
Tiny blue motes of light began to rise through the fabric. The motes of light swirled and danced in the air like miniature fireflies. Mesmerized, Alex watched as the lights began to float up into the air, and then, without much warning, they rushed into him.
If he wasn’t so tired, Alex was sure he would have flinched or tried to move out of the way. The feeling that came with them entering his body was strange and warm. It tingled like some sort of stimulating pre-workout, prickling at his skin.
His chest and stomach began to feel almost like they were vibrating, and then he gasped. The tingling intensified and coalesced toward his abdomen. His lower stomach burned.
He bent over and grabbed the tall grass with his hands, clenching against the brief flash of pain through his navel. He dry heaved once again and stared at the ground beneath him.
Then, the pain disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. A moment later, a blue screen materialized in front of him. It hung in the air, defying gravity. Its surface lacked any sort of visible support or source. The thin floating window was the same color blue as the motes of light.
Across the glass-like panel, words appeared.
***
Congratulations and Welcome to the System, newly Awakened.
Trait Manifested: {Primordial Will}
***
