Chapter 211: Chapter 211

I know what I have to do. But…

 

I look at the entrance to the next floor above me, as I stand on the precipice of the staircase in abject horror at what lies beyond. They’re all dead, right? The hero-party already came through here, so I’m safe, right?

 

Right?

 

I’m scared, guy, hold me. But not too closely, because that’s exactly what I’m scared of.

 

  My boot clanks out, a single sound that reverberates through the quiet, as I step out into my deepest nightmare. Not the black-water, not the thing that reaches, not the gnashing teeth of the rat-queen or even the violent scoldings from the dungeon-master can put this unease into my heart. Not like this. I was trying to be cool and dramatic, so why does it have to be here? Why does it have to be this floor out of all floors?

 

My eyes, wide, scan the room before me from side to side, shaking nervously inside of my skull. I don’t want to.

 

Turning my head around, down the staircase I just came up, I look at the little glow of a fire rising up from below as they are hot on my heels. Maybe… maybe I could just let them kill me? Maybe I’d be safe then. Maybe…

 

Horror breaches my heart.

 

  Through my stepping onto this staircase, I’ve already unlocked floor sixty-nine. If I die now, I’ll respawn here right away. I turn back, looking over the area before me. The strangely wet, slimy cave passages. Round, oddly cylindrical tunnels with deep vertical ridges and grooves along the walls span every which way. Goo drips down, seeping out of cracks and crevices in the walls of the passages of the slime-girl floor.

 

They’re all dead, right?

 

The hero-party is getting closer. I don’t have a choice.

 

Bursting into a sprint, I run as fast as I can, not thinking about the strange, oddly wet sounds I hear from vague, ominous directions. Squelching. Wet, gooey squelching. The air is oddly acidic and carries with it a tinge of damp ammonia.

 

If I don’t die, I can’t respawn here. So I just have to never die. Easy. I can do that. I can do that. I grip my lance tighter as I run. That’s all there is to it, right? Yeah. Yeah. It’s fine. It’s fine. Everything is fine. I’m a hero. I’m a hero.

 

I lick my eyes to moisturize them.

 

Everything is fine!

 

Something giggles and I scream, running faster. “LEAVE ME ALONE!” I yell at the giggler. “There’s the hero-party right behind me! Take them!” I round the bend, losing my balance as my boot slides on a trail of wet slime and I careen, smashing against the oddly soft cave wave.

 

The cave moans.

 

I SCREAM AND RUN.

 

I run as something giggles. Vague forms come together on the corners of my eyes, as the viscous goo secreting from the walls forms into thin puddles.

 

Nope. Nope. Nope!

 

  I slide, sprinting around another bend, losing my balance again as the floor of the… uh… floor, becomes… moist, as I smash into another wall. The secretions from the walls leak out faster and faster, collecting on the floor like an oddly slick, rising tide that makes everything disgustingly damp. Vaguely white trickles of ooze seep out, like water dripping down the side of a cold glass. I want to scream for the dungeon-master to help me, but I know that they won’t.

 

So I’ll do it myself, I run. I run. I run as I listen to a sound ringing out from the walls, from the floor, the sound that I’ll spare you the deeper details of. But think about a dog drinking from a water bowl. It sounds like that.

 

Schlop schlop schlop.

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Slime splashes as my boot steps into a puddle and it giggles, a hand rises out and grabs my leg.

 

  In horror, I look down at the face looking up at me from the puddle. At the slime that slowly starts to collect itself together, becoming larger, rising higher. Growing. Growing into a vague blob with eyes at first. With eyes that twinkle. A vaguely female face forms in the slime and it winks at me, as a tendril slowly worms its way up my leg. As her body slowly starts to become more and more human.

 

I SCREAM.

 

  Stabbing my lance into the rock, I push off and leap. The arm holding me in place snaps off, the goo falling back down to the puddles below as the giggler giggles. I scream and run as bodies start growing out of the walls, as bodies start growing out of the floors. As the slime all comes together to make dozens and dozens of writhing, thrashing bodies. All of them reach for me, all of them reach for each other. All of them reach for… well, just about anything except my eyes. Which is nice for a change, but nope!

 

  The blade of my lance swings out as I slice a slimy tentacle coming my way in half and the goo splatters to the ground like falling rain and I leap, rising over a row of hands that reach up for me, flying over a group of soft, squishy bodies that reach up for me. Some of them don’t even bother pursuing me, don’t even bother chasing me as they descend upon each other like rabid animals. As I fly through the air in that time-frozen second, I look down upon them as they -

 

LALALALALALALALALALA

 

- mouth and then they -

 

LALALALA WE’RE GOING TO SEE THE MILLER LALALALALA

 

- Upside down as one of them spreads her -

 

LALALALALA

 

- And then, they -

 

LALALALA

 

- A few dozen at once easily as they -

 

I land on the other side, stopping for not even a single second as I run further, doing my best to ignore the wet sounds and the odd, gooey moaning I hear from behind me.

 

Don’t look. Don’t look. Don’t look.

 

I’m a lizard. I’m a lizard. Lizards don’t care about this kind of stuff. Lizards just want a warm rock. I wish I had a warm rock. Just a nice, comfy warm rock in the sun. That’s all I need, yeah. Yeah.

 

One of the slime-girls rises up in front of me and she -

 

LALALALALALA

 

I SCREAM, leaping sideways against the wall and then kicking off again with a stronger push to fly past her. Something vibrates and goes bmmmmmmmmmmmm-

 

The cave moans.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

 

 

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