// Distraction & New Quests
A sudden light turned to shadow as the gentle voluptuous lady covered the emitted shine from the green torches of the wall, letting the frail girl sleeping on her lap wake up comfortably without any sudden movements that might make her upset right at the start of her 'day'.
"Hmm... Good morning... Or is it night?" Cho Jae-Hwa rubbed her right eye with drowsiness, attempting to remove the sleepiness from her.
"What is a morning and a... night?" Castelia looked puzzled as she had no knowledge of a sun or a moon inside the enclosed maze, which consequently, the concept of time or how many days that have been spent in this place also did not exist.
"It is when the bright sun comes up and then it goes down and a moon replaces it, becoming dark."
"So the night is like some of the rooms from this domain and the morning is like our wards?" The gentle woman points towards the torches emanating a green flame, comparing it to the sun.
In Jae-Hwa's mind struck curiosity upon finding out that they were wardens this whole time. That alone would explain why the slime from before that was wandering the entrance never tried getting too close.
"Something like that, although my description was also not really accurate."
Castelia giggles for a brief moment, clearing small tear droplets from how much she kept laughing. "You Forgotten Ones sure have an interesting sense of humor."
By her words, Jae-Hwa creates a question that has been bothering her for a long time. "The people here keep calling me that, but what exactly is a Forgotten One?"
The woman gently embraces her, closing in her chest with a subtle and warm hug. Her words were directed to her as if one of them had much pain and the other was sympathizing.
"Outsiders who have forgotten something, or someone who has become forgotten, eternally. They have been appearing at random moments, some longer than others, but this has been happening long before any of us has been born... or at least that is what my mother said to me once when I was a child."
I became forgotten? So no one will remember me, even if I return to Seoul?
Jae-Hwa still had her memories completely intact, she could remember everything and nothing in them seemed to be out of order or even just remotely strange. Meaning, in her little heart, there was only one more devastating but cruel answer: Her friends, her family, everyone had forgotten her. There was no way to confirm this as of the moment, and she knew that she could just be paranoid, but her gut kept telling her that the possibility existed. Her voice was trembling and her breathing seemed to be missing.
Something about her hands that didn't stop trembling made her scared of herself, the fact that she could not decide on what to do next reinforced the fact.
Cold sweat started to drop from her forehead, she looked around to where she could see, stretched her hand in search for one of the other strangers to hold it, but no one seemed to care or even notice.
A slick and pale hand held her fingers with care, a nurturing smile looked at her from above. Only after what seemed to be several minutes of looking at her deep purple eyes, Jae-Hwa was able to calm down, swallow her saliva and finally take a deep breath.
"Maybe I shouldn't have asked."
"I am sorry, but you had to know, sooner or later. It was inevitable for you to find out,"
Getting up and cleaning her clothes from the occasional dust that entered the settlement with the wind, Jae-Hwa looks around in search of the little red beastgirl that was now finally awake, sitted in one of the steps of the stairs they were before.
"There is the whole thing with Marni— I mean, with the hooded girl and now this... I'm starting to feel like it is meaningless to continue with life as is. I'd rather be in a corner rotting away than knowing that whatever I do, it will all be meaningless in the end."
"I truly apologize, I wish I could more to aid you."
"There is no need to... Castelia?"
Castelia's eyes widen and a tender smiles begins to reveal itself. While still crouching, she takes a few steps back and slowly unveils a large part of her dress, placing different items on the fabric as if she was setting up store for the day.
Her left hand waves until she officially presents the selection of goods she had with her.
"I may not be able to do much, but I can still offer you something that maybe will help you."
Syringes with an odd green liquid seemed to heal health, while small cases of pills served to regenerate energy. The graceful merchant contained several items of the same kind or similar to heal and others that would probably be considered an illegal weapon on Earth.
"I'm not fit for combat, even I don't understand how I managed to survive until now. It was probably just luck."
"Luck? Maybe so, but I still believe your skills are also at play here. I eavesdropped your conversation earlier with... her, and you obtained a new skill, right? Out of all the fifty-seven people that are here, only a handful managed to obtain a skill or even just kill a slime."
"Even so, I don't know..."
"Tell me, what did it feel like when you were battling? Or when you won against your enemies?"
Jae-Hwa looks down to her knees, holding her feelings to her heart, protecting them with her hands. A moment of silence passes without interaction, until she finally breaks her silence with her voice waivering.
"It feels like I am only focused on them, like there is no world but where my knife will slash. Everything becomes so calm and simple that whenever I win it just feels like I have achieved inner peace... In a way, it sort of feels addicting, but it is still so weird that I cannot just brush it off that easily."
"Then that is probably because you have not found a reason to kill them. Both your body and soul are just not used to them, so it is understandable that you find it difficult to accept it. This being the case, why don't I give you a reason?"
Castelia picks up a small lantern, still large enough to have the need of holding it with one hand. It glows faintly with a green light like the wards in the room as a small amount of smoke also escapes through the top.
"If you wish to, I can give you a quest with this Slime Ward as a reward. How about it?"
As Jae-Hwa holds it in her hand, sizing it up along with the feeling it gave to her, she quickly denies it. "It feels like it will become uncomfortable after some time holding it and I'm also not sure if I can battle properly with it. Besides, fighting for my life just because I can get something seems... wrong."
"Think of it as a distraction, to make you forget about all the bad that has been happening."
"Even then—"
—SIDE QUEST————————————
QUEST NAME: Viscuous Charm
DESCRIPTION: In order to make a smaller version of the Slime Ward, there are certain ingredients needed. Gather them and return to Castelia so she can create it.
OBJECTIVE(S): Obtain 4 Slime Mucus. Obtain 1 Chunk of Metal.
"Just try to get your head out of this and enjoy yourself for a moment. Even if you think that you are not fit for it or that it may be scary, perhaps indulging in it will make you learn something new that you could never hope to before."
"Like what? What good would be of me becoming a killer?" Her frustration is starting to build up, her reason starting to falter as she also does not see any other way of clearing her head.
"You only become a killer when you do it against your own kind. Do you think the slimes will hesitate to take your life when they see you?"
No, she's right. In this place there is no survival besides killing them. My body has not asked for food in all this time and I have no desire to go to the toilet... It's as if those became optional, only to make battling the whole purpose of life.
Then, so be it.
"I will try. I don't make promises, but I will try."
"Alright, then as a bonus, I will give you this Low Grade Med. You press the bottom of the syringe against any part of your body and press the button on top, a total of ten health will be recovered."
—LOW GRADE MED——————————
After injecting the contents of the metallic rectangular syringe, your body will feel slightly revitalized, healing 10 health.
Effect: +10 health
"Thank you, you have been doing more than you should have."
"I just don't want to see such a beautiful lady with such a depressed face."
A tiny smile ruptures the sadness in Jae-Hwa, her cheeks becoming rose with slight embarrassment as her eyes rest while listening to her words.
"Alright, I will do it right now. For starters, how can I get this... Chunk of Metal?"
Castelia closes her eyes, rests her hands on her lap and opens her mouth to let oxygen enter. A short but relieved sigh escapes her mouth, right before starting her explanation.
"That is something that you can get after defeating an Armored Slime. They are slightly larger in size than your average slime, but they are also tougher and are protected by several chunks of different metal junk, hence the name of the item."
"Then, where can I find them?"
"Go west after leaving the settlement, you should find some wandering the corridors."
Just before thanking the gorgeous trader and leaving west, Jae-Hwa glances once more towards Marni. She seemed to be asleep or meditating, somehow in a resting of resting and observating.
"Don't worry, I will keep an eye on her."
In her open mind, Castelia's words don't seem enough, the uneasiness in her heart doesn't seem to fade, even though there is not much to do about it in her current conditions.
"Alright, I will try to be quick."
There wasn't much to do but brush it off with a smile.
Cho Jae-Hwa walked outside, stopping at the entrance to greet the guard Gabriel. Surprisingly, he reacted quite positively to her, instead of doing it with a cold shoulder like before.
After a short time checking whether it was safe to continue, she heads to the west exit from the entrance. The same type of corridors keep appearing, bricks addorned with a blue flowing light, so much repetition that it starts becoming nauseating.
In order to evade minor annoyances and keep going straight towards her new enemy, an Armored Slime, she kept advancing while trying to make as little sound as possible.
Some minutes pass from wandering the maze, nearing almost half an hour, and only then does the light start to change from a cold blue to a calming yellow. There were no other differences besides a change in the feeling the next corridors gave, making Jae-Hwa's skin crawl.
On a room east, several jiggly sounds slapped on the floor, some discoordinated while others were heavier and had a threathening aura that could be felt even from afar.
"Is that them?"
She muttered to herself just before looking around the corner, scouting what dangers would be there.
Three regular slimes bounced around happily, they all had their respective gooey texture on the blue mucous surrounding the red sphere being held on the center of their body, supposedly their core.
Behind them was an orange, with an almost rusty looking color, slime that presented itself twice their size. Several pieces of metal and other materials created a layer of protection around it while new scraps were added as it dissolved parts of the destroyed floor.
As she analyzed their behaviors, a couple of panels appeared in front of her eyes.
—ENEMY
ENEMY NAME: SLIME
ENEMY HEALTH: 20/20
—ENEMY———————————————
ENEMY NAME: ARMORED SLIME
ENEMY HEALTH: 40/40
Three of them will be hard enough, but the armored has double their health. It is probably stronger and with much more defense than your average slime... What do I do? I'm still level 0, so I have no chances of winning.
While deep in her thoughts, a small projectile, the size of a marble, passes in front of her eyes with tremendous speed. It travels all the way to the wall on her left, dissolving a small but deep hole until there was no more of it's substance left.
"They can also shoot stuff!?"
Amidst her shout of surprise, the wobbly creatures finally notice her and start vibrating in ecstasy for a fight. In Jae-Hwa's mind something had started to click as well, something akin to adrenaline as she noticed there was nowhere to run anymore.
Considering they had a way to cover the long distance, even if she tried to, it would only end in her body being dissolved.
"There is only one way now... I will have to gamble my luck."
Lowering her body to obtain speed, her mind focused on her newly obtained skill, triggering a while light that enshrouded her body like a veil, the color of her eyes lighting up with emotion and the effects of her skill as she easily activated
For the current level she had, there was only so much energy she could use effectively, becoming her first instinct to save it and play it safely, even more so when facing a new enemy.
Jae-Hwa flexed the muscles of her legs, an otherworldly strength accumulating on them as she leaps to one of the more isolated slimes, weapon ready in her hand.
Her slash moves horizontally, towards the core that kept the foe's body moving, but to her surprise, it is easily dodged as the little creature jumps back behind the armored companion.
"I only have two minutes so I can't waste a second! Just let me hit you, you damn slime!"
Drifting her sight to the nearest enemy, her eyes widen with slight frustration that her attack failed, even though she had done easy work of them before. She restlessly planted her left foot on the ground, letting it slide until the attrition from the crumbled eaten debris on the floor stopped it.
With as much precision as she could manage with such little time during combat, Jae-Hwa's hands unconsciously perform a flurry of diagonal slashes, attempting to cut the cores open of her enemies.
Am I hurrying myself too much? No matter what I do, the attacks are barely connecting, if anything I can only hit them by surprise — besides that they always manage to dodge.
Something feels off.
No matter the attack: horizontal, vertical or diagonal — only feints seemed to work. Her mind kept searching for a reason, an answer to why they were being so coordinated unlike before.
When a slime was attacked, they jumped behind the armored slime. When they attacked, they always did it with two or more of them, always trying to flank her blind spot.
Little by little she lost more of her health, if she tried to shorten the distance between them, she would be warned by an acidic projectile that came out of nowhere.
HP: 77/100
Cho Jae-Hwa seems out of options. Her mind keeps searching the room, looking for the necessary answer or aid.
Several more options to read appear in front of her eyes, different from the usual that were only reserved to items, weapons, enemies... Essentially part of the system or what made this seem like a game.
—
Reinforced bricks made of Nanite, usually used in construction or in ruins.
————————————————
Presence invisible. Unable to Identify.
"Unable to Identify? Where—?"
On the bottom of the
Jae-Hwa gulped her own saliva, her mouth almost dry after she stopped running back and forth, panting with tiredness as her hand wiped the sweat from her forehead.
She took small steps, right before dashing towards the armored enemy, hovering her weapon on top of her head.
For a very brief moment, a small blob of slime progressively leaves the inside of the
Despite it's minuscule size, it had something that resembled a mouth and a pair of eyes, along with a semi-transparent body that made it almost invisible.
Jae-Hwa locked her gaze to it, just before orbs of acid started to form around the little blob's mouth and shoot towards her face. Being in a bad position, her only reaction was to leave her attack for later and use her feet to dodge them.
Out of the three bullet-like projectiles, one of them seemed to graze her cheek, although to her surprise, it soon vanished from her skin.
"It didn't melt? But how— What the —! What is—" She could barely breathe, or even talk, although at times it seemed to weaken.
Her heart seemed to be grasped tightly by an invisible hand, her lungs were on fire with how much they seemed to burn.
PLAYER NAME: CHO JAE-HWA
Poison. The acid dissolved becaused it worked in a different way when interacting with a human. It only seemed right after thinking about it with a game's mentality, or so her mind seemed to justify it as such.
Soon after she had obtained some distance and was in considerable safety, another panel opened in front of her eyes, making her eyes go wide with surprise.
—RARE ENEMY————————————
ENEMY NAME: SLIME STRATEGIST
ENEMY HEALTH: 10/10
TYPE: SYMBIOTE
SKILL:
DESCRIPTION: Likes to merge itself with a stronger ally and convey orders from its safety.
"A rare... Enemy?"
—CURRENT STATS——————————
PLAYER NAME: CHO JAE-HWA
BLESSING: none
TITLE: none
HEALTH: 74/100
DAMAGE: 9 (+4) // DEFENSE: 10 // ENERGY: 13/20
WEAPON: Damaged Knife
ARMOR: Simple Uniform
SKILLS:
CREDITS: 1