During the last two hours, Hera only saw the sa tree pattern over and over again. If it wasn't for her [Mapping] skill, she would have no way of knowing where she was.
Betty had said that the monsters lived southeast of the town, but she never ntioned the distance. Hera looked at the shadows from the trees. They never changed. The light in the sky was the sa too, even though Hera couldn't see the sun.
After spending a few hours walking around, this place had lost its charm. Sure, it was still beautiful, but there were many problems with the area. The repetitiveness of it, the lack of sun, the sound that didn't match what was going on around her. The more Hera looked around, the more she found things to nitpick about.
"Look, that branch there. It's completely different from the others. Instead of so natural jagged shape, it's almost like a curved line. And why is it bent to the side? There is no wind to do that," She said to herself.
Hera had embraced the idea of talking to herself. Not only did it help her organize her own thoughts, but it was also a nice change from the constant wind sound she kept hearing in a loop.
With her tablet in hand, she opened the map once again, to make sure she wasn't deviating from her path. If the creek followed a straight line south, she would be eting it soon.
"Maybe Peaches took a stroll, and we end up eting down here. Peaches was the one... Person?... Creature? Let's go with NPC. The one NPC who seed more natural. Betty had a lot of expressions, but what she could say was limited. Peaches, on the other hand, was very lifelike, at least for a talking green apple. I swear that is the only reason I wanted to talk to him again. Not because he is so cute," Hera said.
Distracted by her thoughts, she failed to notice a yellow puddle in front of her. She slipped on the yellow liquid, making her do a one-legged split on top of the puddle.
"Ewww, please tell this is not pee," Hera groaned after seeing the color of the liquid.
While getting up, it only took her a mont to realize that there was sothing wrong. The liquid had a dark yellow color, and it was viscous, it felt almost like honey. She rubbed the goo between her fingers, trying to understand what it was when she felt a burning sensation covering her hand.
She quickly got up, shaking her hand hoping to remove the liquid from it, when she realized that the thick sludge was still stuck to the puddle, and now to her legs as well.
Using her nails, she scraped the goo from her body. The burning sensation was increasing with each passing mont. She grabbed the thick strand of the sludge going from her hand to her legs and tried to pull it out with all her strength. While doing so, she felt sothing hard in her palm.
Suddenly, the goo started to move. It let go of her arm and legs and wrapped around the hand that had just started pulling it. The sludge burned Hera's skin even more. The feeling before was comparable to being in the sun for too long, but now it was like holding out her hand above an open fla.
Hera jerked her hand back and shook it with all she had, but the liquid seed to grasp her even harder.
She made a swinging motion, trying to make the sludge drop to the floor. As Hera thrashed her arm around, part of the goo hit the floor and splattered away. At the sa ti, the grip it held in her hand loosened. Realizing that, Hera whacked her hand into a tree.
It hurt to do so, but with each strike, the sludge seed weaker, and the pain beca more tolerable.
"Get. Off. ," Hera yelled while hitting the goo into the tree.
Her hand was hurting. She wasn't sure if it was by the impact against the bark or by the burning of the goo. But she couldn't stop. Each swing had to be stronger than the last, or that sludge would end up burning her hand off. After a few monts, that hard object inside her hand seed to crack, and the goo lost all viscosity, falling into the ground as if it was nothing more than water.
Unsure of what just happened, Hera stepped away from the liquid. The sludge dissolved in thin air, leaving only a wet spot where it landed. She looked at her hand. There were so light burns and scaring, and a few of the hairs she had on her arm were gone. She also had that thing inside her hand. It was a round shell with so fissures. It looked just like a hazelnut seed, but it had a bright yellow color. Staring at it, Hera activated her [Inspect].
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Broken sli core (Simulation)
Type: Yellow
The core of a sli creature. It controls how the rest of the body moves. In most cases, the core stays in the center of the sli's mass, even when it changes shape.
The quickest way of defeating a sli is to destroy its core.
Yellow cores co from a highly acidic sli. All slis break down their prey inside their body to absorb the nutrients. However, yellow ones can do it at an accelerated rate.
The simulated version shares the instinct of its real counterpart. The version created by the simulation is weaker than the ones that live inside the MAZE.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on . Report any occurrences.
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Hera stared at the core for a mont. That thing wasn't burning her. It was trying to dissolve. The thought made Hera shiver. Being lted down by gastric fluids would be nightmarish.
"Are those the monsters Betty talked about?"
She looked back towards the wet spot on the ground, where the sludge had dissolved.
"They are slimy, slithery, and can easily give haunt soone’s dreams. I guess it matches the description," Hera said.
Looking around, she scanned the area for more of those creatures. First looking for more puddles, she wasn't able to find any of them. Then Hera looked for other places where the slis could be hidden.
She found nothing on the ground or in the bushes. Even the trunks of the trees seed to be empty. Only when Hera looked above, towards the leaves of the trees, that she found what she was looking for.
Sitting in one of the twigs, lay a large green blob. It even had so jagged parts that made it look like part of the foliage. Hera slowly stepped away from it, worried that the creature would jump on her. Realizing that the slis camouflaged themselves in the environnt, she looked around once again. To her dismay, she found half a dozen slis spread around the forest. Hera moved back to the path she took, always searching for the slis.
She quickly grabbed her tablet and marked the point where the slis appeared. She was close to where the creek should be, and since the slis were liquid, maybe the water could help her. But at the sa ti, it could also make things worse. What if the water made them bigger and stronger?
She decided to go to the creek and try to see if there were any slis around. She also wanted to wash her hand. There was not only a sticky feeling on it, but it still hurt from the acid.
Hera activated her [Hide] skill and started walking towards the creek. Luckily, the stream was exactly where she expected. It seed to make a straight line south. She looked around, searching for the monsters, but found nothing. Feeling a bit more relaxed, she proceeded to wash her hands.
The water stung her hand, but it was refreshing. Hera noticed a small stream of red leaving one of her fingers. The sli ended up hurting her more than she realized, or it happened when she bashed her hand repeatedly against the tree. For a mont, her eyes went wide, thinking about what would happen if there were more slis on the tree she hit.
Hera brushed off those thoughts and finished cleaning herself. She grabbed the handaxe and the chakram and walked toward the forest where the slis were. It didn't take long to find the creatures. Now that she understood how they hid, she could focus on that. The first one she found was a green sli on the edge of so bushes. Getting ready to attack, she stopped and activated her [Inspect]
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Sli (Simulation)
Type: Green
A sentient gelatinous goo. It hunts by trapping its prey inside its body and slowly breaking it down with its digestive juices. It is a slow creature that use the environnt in order to hunt. The green variety secrets a fluid that puts its prey to sleep while it is being eaten.
The simulated version shares the instinct of its real counterpart. The version created by the simulation is weaker than the ones that live inside the MAZE.
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"Great, so each one will do sothing different," Hera sighed.
She walked closer to the sli, trying to find its core. It was hard to see inside the creature. Hera had to get closer to even understand its full shape. Unable to find the core by looking at it, she rembered what the description said about it staying in the center of mass.
With no other option in her mind, Hera took a chance. Holding her handaxe tightly, she slashed the sli aiming at its middle.
Almost half of the sli fell to the side, motionless. The rest of it bounced off to the side at a speed that Hera wasn't expecting. She quickly took a step back and stared at the creature. It went back to its motionless state, but Hera could have sworn it was staring at her. She moved quickly towards the sli, ready to strike it once more.
The monster was ready for the attack. When Hera got close, the sli pulled itself back and lunged like a snake. Surprised, Hera smacked the creature to the side using the chakram. This ti only a small piece of its body was severed from it.
Stepping back, Hera circled the creature before striking again. However, she was et with the sa response. It was nearly impossible to see where the sli was looking at.
"Maybe it's not about sight," she thought.
Without looking away from her prey, Hera searched for a rock in the ground. At that mont, she felt sothing wet. Before she could react, a second green sli snapped at her hand.
Hera smashed the sli into the ground and hacked away at it, trying to hit its core.
"That will not work a second ti!"
She kept hacking away at the sli, pulling it apart with each slash of the handaxe. The first sli started to move towards her. Hera's eyes kept darting back and forth between the slis.
Cutting enough of the sli off her hand, Hera pulled her arm away from it. The creature seed to have problems with keeping its shape. It was almost like a puddle, with a moss green pebble in the middle of it. The small stone seed to spin, pulling so of the liquid to cover itself.
Hera quickly attacked the sli's core. It took her a few tries, but she broke it before the first sli reached her. She turned around and prepared for her attack. She charged, using her chakram as a feint. When the sli lunged at her, she stepped to the side and slashed the creature with her handaxe, cutting another good chunk of it.
She repeated the process a few tis until the sli lost the ability to maintain its form. With a cold smile, Hera stared at the creature.
"I won," she said just before slashing the core.
Her back was already starting to hurt. Fighting a creature that moves so close to the floor was troubleso. She looked at the wet spots that showed where the creatures died.
"I guess I went a bit overboard," Hera said.
She picked the cores, one of them was cut in two pieces, while the other had cut in the middle, but it was still a single piece. Placing both cores inside her satchel, Hera noticed a slight silver glow on the ground. It was smaller than a leaf, and it seed thinner. Hera picked it up, and it felt like holding a piece of a plastic bag. It stuck to her hand and wrapped around her fingers. Worried that was another sli, she quickly activated her [Inspect].
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Liquid tal
Biomineral
A compound generated by a sli that ate many minerals. Blacksmiths use it to make lightweight equipnt. It can also be used to produce electronic components due to its high conductivity.
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"Oh, so this is the tal Betty needs,"
Hera looked back at the forest. So far, it had a one in three chance to drop. It wasn't so bad.
"Ok, Let's do this, maybe I can finish it all before nightfall. Well... if there is night here."
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