Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Sixth Circle Mortal (2/3)

I went a little forceful with my methods, willing my dominance over my core skill and hoping it did the trick since I could see the Black Slime had already dealt with my poorly-crafted spear, spitting out only splinters - this was going to be me if I took any longer. 

Fuck. Do it now!

I saw death in the form of a black whip, smelt the decaying acid on it and watched how in the next split second, it would rip a melting hole through my brain.

But luckily, I had analyzed and foresaw it. Quickly, my body reacted as my head slipped right to the acidic whip as I summoned a spear and shot it directly at the Black Slime’s outer core, all under a second. It did no damage as expected, the spear’s sharp edge made it useless in contact with the highly acidic body of the Black Slime. But like all Slimes, it’s core was still the weak part of its body, so it staggered and wobbled about violently in pain due to the momentum carried over from the spear to the outer core.

My feet took off when I saw the chance. Again, I foresaw the Black Slime’s angry retaliation, dodging the acidic shots before it even shot them as I summoned another spear from my [Inventory]. Only four left. Next acidic shot will be to my left. Dodge right. Then, look out for the acidic whips from below. Jump and roll forward. My brain and eyes worked everything I needed to do in under a minute, providing me with the path to victory. 

I could see it. I could see everything the Black Slime was going to do. 

I threw the spear I was holding onto at the Black Slime but since it was capable of learning, it deflected the spear by melting it with an acid shot instead of arrogantly letting the spear hit it like last time. What it didn’t know was that I had already predicted that, and used the acid and spear fucked up mixture of black goo and wood as cover to create a blindspot as I summoned two more spears from my [Inventory]. 

These were the first two spears I had created and had some sentimental attachments to them, so I felt somewhat bad for my next move. 

“Mmf,” As the two spears fell comfortably into my hands, I felt like my brain had just been hit with a dosage of the strongest sleep medicine in the world. My time limit using my ocular skill this way must be reaching its limits. As if to prove my point, I distinctly felt the warm trickle of blood running down my nose but I ignored it and powered myself through will alone. 

I took a deep breath and using the black goo as cover, I clenched all the strength I had in my arms and threw the first spear through the black goo. I had thrown it hard enough so that it whistled past the black goo - albeit some parts of the spear still got damaged - but I didn’t stop and stare. No, I rolled to the right, knowing that the Black Slime should be focusing on the first spear I had thrown and so, I used the other spear to throw it from the right with the same amount of momentum as the first spear, effectively forcing the Black Slime to one of two moves. 

1. Dodge to the left. 
2. Use its [Acidic Whip] to break and melt the spears in half. 

But, outside of my expectations, it did a move I hadn’t seen before. Pure kinetic energy gathered in the form of ripples, traveling from bottom to the top of its fluid, round body like the funny-sounding bubbles that came up in a water dispenser when you poured yourself a glass of water long enough. Then, it jumped. 

It jumped so high that its black, round body might as well have been the sun from where I was standing. Usually, I would have panicked that it acted outside of my ocular skill’s expectations but unfortunately for the big, bad slime, I was an overthinker and cautionist. I never once thought of myself nor any of my skills as perfect. 

It was high up in the air, just as I had hoped. I grinned. The reason why my plan was considered extremely risky was because I had bet on the small chance that my [Analyze] wouldn’t be able to completely predict the Black Slime’s moves. I bet on the fact that nothing could truly and fully predict a living, sentient being’s future actions. 

“You’re mine now.” I was already prepared for the Black Slime and immediately threw the two spears in quick succession at the Black Slime on its way down. I had shot it with such pinpoint accuracy so that the second spear was directly in line and behind the first spear. Then, I felt myself kneel from the exhaustion and felt my vision blurry from the over usage of my ocular skill. My kneeling body woozily swayed back and fro, wanting to slump down on the ground and sleep for a million years but I forced myself to watch the end. 

This was the moment of truth. If this didn’t work, I was screwed. I looked up, no longer accompanied with the quickened thought process provided by [Analyze] and watched as the first spear had been destroyed in a split second. 

But the Black Slime, to my ever-present fortune, managed to be fooled by the distraction of the first spear and was unable to react to the second, special spear I had thrown. It made an extremely horrifying, lava-sounding, ear-melting shriek as the 3 water pouches I had stuck on the tip of the second spear exploded when it made contact with the Black Slime’s body. 

Why three? Well, you can never be too cautious after all. It’s entire body melted -how ironic- when three pouches worth of water fell onto its acidic body. I could see the immense amount of steam it’s body released as it’s fluid, acidic skin sizzled like ice in hot oil. This went on all the way until it fell onto the ground right with the same sound that a rubber ball made when dropped from a dam. 

I watched it sizzle in agony before my eyes and yet even then, it still tried to kill me, tried to reach me with it’s weak, short not-so-acidic whips.

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“I’ve. . been. .meaning. . to. .do. .that,” I flipped it off. “Fuck you, cunt.” Then, through blurry eyes, I watched how it evaporated out of existence, leaving behind a puddle of black acid on which the shiniest crystal of white - it’s inner core - stood.

I couldn’t even laugh at the irony that a Black Slime had the whitest inner core I had seen nor could I even squeal at the fact that I had just obtained a mutated seventh circle core. If I’d absorbed this, I’d automatically be halfway to ascending to the sixth circle. Fuck, I was going to pass out but I didn’t want any other monster to snatch my hard-earned core nor kill me in my sleep.

So, through an unrealistic amount of will or just selfish greed, I forced myself to crawl like a worm towards the shiny, clear crystal. Every muscle felt like they were torn and every nerve felt like they were on fire as I wriggled near my way up. When I finally made it, I was dangerously close to passing out and so, with the most amount of speed my aching, extremely exhausted body could manage, I forced my right hand to stretch just near enough the inner core so that I could feel it’s energy to absorb it and not drop into the melting pool of black acid around it. 

As my fingers stretched towards the warmth of the inner core, my body started feeling the large amount of energy, the large amount of food and instinctively reached out to grab a taste. The last thing I remembered before I dropped unconscious was how good a mutated seventh circle’s energy felt as it streamed inside me, healing me, building me so that the next time I woke up, I’d become a different, stronger ma-woman.

And yet, the only thing I could think about was how much I hoped I didn’t get eaten in my sleep as darkness overcame me.

****

I woke up with a sore back, aching head, numb legs, and just about every soreness you could think of. My memories flowed into me steadily and I felt as if I’d slept for an entire week. Then, I realized the severity of my situation and quickly regained my state of alertness, only to see that my surroundings were more or less the same, except that the inner core of the Black Slime in my hands had been completely absorbed, to the point that no light shone from it at all. Also, the black acid of the mutated slime seemed to have vanished completely, perhaps absorbed into the soil but the patch of grass it had seeped into had turned black as well and I could sense a faint energy from it. 

“Ouch,” My hands soothingly rubbed my temples. Usually, I felt refreshed after absorbing an inner core but perhaps I’d overworked my body a little too much trying to get this inner core. Yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever get traumatized from Black Slimes ever again. 

But first and foremost, I needed information. Of everything. Of what had happened, how many days had passed and if there was anything weird within my body after prematurely absorbing a seventh circle core, not to mention a mutated one. 

“[Question],” I intoned. “Tell me what happened after my fight with the Black Slime, both outside and inside my body. Do keep it short, please. I don’t think I can read a novel’s worth with the way my head’s banged up right now. ”

Ding!

• You have used your core skill [Question]. You will not be able to use your core skill [Question] for the next 24 hours. 

I groaned from that extremely loud ding in my head. 

 

 

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