“Ngh...”
For the first time in a while, I’d experienced a nightmare.
I’d like to call it a miracle that I hadn’t screamed out while asleep, but as soon as I woke up, I knew that I wouldn’t have been able to. My body felt drained; my throat was drier than any bad dream could make it. It felt like my nightmare had been influenced by my condition in the real world.
If memory served me, I’d gone out with my allies to slay an abnormally huge hydra. But one surprise after another had ruined the strategy we’d worked out beforehand and rendered our teamwork utterly useless. I had decided to stay behind as the rearguard to allow my allies to escape, preventing the worst-case scenario of us all getting wiped out—and after that...
“Ow...”
My recollections came to an abrupt end there as I grimaced with the feeling that something was wrong. I’d been so exhausted that I hadn’t noticed before, but I had a bad feeling about my right arm near the elbow. The arm felt like it was wrapped in something...something squishy. I glanced over and saw some blue thing absorbing my elbow.
“Grh...! A slime?!”
I had no strength to fight back, which was unsurprising since I’d just woken up after falling unconscious, but this was no laughing matter. Nowadays slimes were a common sight in most towns as livestock, but wild ones were ravenous creatures who ate everything. They had strange bodies that were halfway between solid and liquid, which allowed them to dissolve anything they wanted to swallow. Physical attacks were useless; one hit with your weapon and the slime would absorb and dissolve it. As metal was easily dissolvable for them, people—lumps of flesh that we were—made for one of their favorite foods.
Their only weakness was a body part known as their “core,” but it wasn’t easy to destroy. With its somewhat fluid state, simple slashes and stabs wouldn’t work against it. The easiest and most efficient way of dealing with the core was to have a wizard conjure up fire or ice, but I didn’t have one with me.
If a wild slime got ahold of you, you would experience the most terrifying fate imaginable. After it had finished the slow process of dissolving your skin, flesh, and bones, it would slip into your body through the wound—while you were still alive—and begin devouring you from the inside.
According to alchemists, the mucus that made up slimes’ bodies contained a small number of anesthetics and hemostatic agents so that they could capture and consume their prey when as fresh as possible, meaning that they could continue to dissolve their prey while keeping them trapped but without killing them. It was nothing short of a living hell.
If you were lucky and one ate you from the head down, then your suffering would be cut short, but if one entered you via stomach or leg wound, then only one option was left to you if you couldn’t use magic: You needed to chop it off, body part and all. This was the most logical and efficient choice of a terrible selection. I knew a number of fellow adventurers who had survived but not quite in one piece.
“Dammit...”
I knew what needed to be done, but oh, if only it were that easy. I was as good as dead as an adventurer without my right arm, even if I survived. However, I unfortunately had a bigger problem to deal with right now—I was so drained that I couldn’t freely move my body. Even if I were mentally prepared to cut off my arm, my sword wasn’t nearby, and I doubted I would even have the strength to hold it if it were. All I could manage to do was wiggle my fingers.
“Hmm, looks like his nervous system has reconnected.” Suddenly I heard an unfamiliar voice booming. It was a low, masculine voice. “However, I would advise you not to move yet. It would be best to refrain from wasting any energy unnecessarily.”
“Wh-Who’s there?” I said. “N-No, that doesn’t matter! Whoever you are...cut my right arm off...”
All I could do was pray that this stranger would save me. I couldn’t see them, but I was certain they were close. As long as I wasn’t hearing things of course. But the voice surprised me with its response.
“Enough of that nonsense. I put all that effort into reattaching your arm. Do you wish to waste my three days of work?”
“Huh?”
Finally I felt the blood return to my brain. That’s right... The hydra already chewed my arm off. The memories of that came flooding back, along with the question of why I could feel my arm and move my fingers.
“Your desire to recover is understandable, but I’ll need to stay like this for another two days, lad.”
I glanced over at the quivering slime that was still on my arm. The voice had been coming from it.
“No...”
As my concern turned into fear, my fear turned into panic. Just as my brain was overheating and about to shut down...someone came out from the bushes.
“Oh, Blue. Is he awake?”
Hearing them, I—
“WAAAAAAAAAAGH!”
I couldn’t stop a scream from escaping.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaagh?!”
Then she screamed in response to me. What a disaster.
Our new visitor, who had fallen over onto her behind and was now glaring at me, was a young lady with glowing golden hair that looked like spun sugar.
“I was ready to be thanked and praised, not screamed at,” the girl bemoaned. She was hard at work chopping up some fruit, frowning grumpily all the while. The fruit was known for being incredibly sweet, sour, and bitter, and so adventurers—folks known for their extreme rationality—didn’t like to eat them. Unfortunately for us, they were packed with nutrients and weren’t poisonous, so they were a perfect emergency food.
The girl diced the fruit, put them in a small pot, then turned on the heat. After a bit, the fruit pieces began to swelter as they were stewed.
“I don’t mind you being silent if you can’t talk...” she went on.
The girl seemed upset that I wasn’t replying to her. She glared at me, then stared at the pot, then back and forth, over and over. Soon enough, a sweet fragrance wafted over from the pot. The fruit was now fully cooked and had been stewed into a thick puree. After plating it up, she approached me with a wooden spoon in hand.
“Say ‘ahh,’” she said.
I refused.
Was there anything more embarrassing than having someone say that with a spoonful of fruit puree on its way to your mouth? Not to mention that it was still piping hot.