Chapter 143: There Was No Escape

There were certain things that Han Jing had grown up with as a boy that lived in one of the most expensive city in his country—and that dagger was damn expensive! "Hey give it back—er, nevermind." He quickly stepped back as the dagger he let go was absorbed into the slime's body. He reluctantly then pulled out his second dagger from his inventory.

"Think Han, think!" He didn't even have much time to speak as he dodged the new set of tendrils and then felt one of them jab him right in his torso. It packed quite a punch. The young man doubled over in pain as he tried to step back, but his own reflexes failed him as one of the tendrils grabbed him by the leg and lifted him up from the ground.

And there was no time for snappy—the slime slung him back and forth across the walls. The man groaned in pain as he was treated like his sister's ragdoll. He held on to his dagger though as he raised it to cut the tendril off and accidentally stabbed his own leg.

A piercing scream echoed in the halls along with certain expletives.

On his third try, he finally succeeded as he dropped to the ground and caught himself before falling face-flat on the floor. "Damn it," He said as his eyes pricked with some tears this time around. The slime however stopped for a moment and he wondered if it was recharging or doing whatever it did to recuperate.

Had it overexerted itself as well?

If it did that, that was good. He had a moment to catch his breath and maybe observe his opponent. Although Han was on his toes, well, his stabbed leg wanted to limp but he was ready to move if that thing ever moved one blob of itself. Was it good to retreat—no, this thing was going to chase him down.

Although he half-wished that he had smoke bombs.

"Not that this thing has any eyes or anything." He muttered to himself until he paused. There was something he hadn't been trying before but only recently, he chewed for a minute as he immediately focused on the slime.

Inspect.

He moved slightly and slowly closer, he didn't want to incite it to action—

Inspect.

[ Black Slime - an amalgamation of shadow, darkness and slime made with a long forgotten combination of magic and alchemy. This creature responds to its master who stayed in this place.

It recalls the time when it was made in the test tube and greatly fears bottles. ]

"No HP Bar?!" Han yelped and quickly regretted it as the slime reacted and threw its tendril—his first dagger zipped through the air and slashed right above his head.

It scarcely missed him by a hair's breadth again. He heard his first dagger clatter in the back. This really could have been a good time if he had a party of two instead of one! He ground his teeth and dashed—his leg seared in pain which he ignored. His blood was pumping, adrenaline was working overtime right now.

Inspect!

[ Black Slime - has some degree of intelligence that is greater than a mere animal's. It can learn techniques and styles through observing their opponent ]

"Well, the hell you are! Do you have a core?!"

.. .

There was a scream that he heard that sounded like a girl's—it made Timothy stop from walking as he blinked. "Ellynn?" He glanced back in the direction that he was walking away from and paused.

"Was I walking in the wrong direction…"

His fire was cracking brightly in his hand as he assessed his surroundings. The hallways was filled with inscriptions and glyphs he couldn't tell or identify. Wait, Ellynn. He was supposed to Ellynn. Was that in the right direction though? Timothy tilted his head as he gazed in that direction with knotted brows.

It seemed to be the right direction.

Was he imagining things? He hadn't exactly heard anything similar from a cry or scream from Miss Ellynn before. He was sure that she was a lot more stronger than him so he didn't need to worry. So who was screaming?

His mind?

Was his head… no, he was just tired. Imagining things was no good for him. He should concentrate. He lifted his head and gazed left and right, which direction? It made his head hurt, both seemed right. His hand felt something in his pocket as he drew out a potion bottle.

The liquid was shimmering coolly within it and when he gazed in it, he could see his reflection and—he blinked at the sight of the glyphs and inscriptions in the reflection.

Something felt really wrong about them—he lifted his gaze at the hallways and blinked. They were just designs in the walls that he couldn't understand, his mind was getting tired from all the trouble he'd been. His hand felt cold as he felt a bottle in his hand.

"Healing potion."

Was it alright to drink this even if he had no injury? Surely it didn't have any adverse effects or anything… the young man took a sip. And then he started drinking the entire bottle to the very last drop.

Once he was done, he sighed in relief. His thirst was quenched and there was some clarity—he started coughing hard.

.. .

On Ellynn's side, things weren't going as smoothly as she thought it would be when the hindrance between actually getting out of the barrier—forgive her, suppresion field, was only a single thread's away via this enchanted… construct cloak that this Enchanter was protecting.

"This is my masterpiece and friend! You seriously can't expect me to give them up for your goals!"

Her goals?

She was a few seconds away from grabbing the young man's collar and shaking him for being so daft. "It's a worthy sacrifice! Your life is at stake here as much as it is mine! So if you don't want to end up like that skeleton in the cell, you better start getting your priorities straight!"

Theodore pushed up his spectacles and he had the nerve to look peeved at her remark. It was as if she was being the bad guy in this situation—it was unbelievable that some people were too hung up on their creations to selfishly not see the big picture.

Time was ticking for them!

"I told you Miss Ellynn, we don't need to sacrifice my good friend for this. Give me some time and I'll crack this suppression field like the nut you gave me."

His words did not bring a laugh, giggle or even a smile on her face but in the end she nodded and raised her hand. "Fine, let's do it that way."

"And you won't touch my cloak?"

"No, not at all."

"You won't attack it—you won't even think of laying a finger on it, okay?"

Ellynn sighed but nodded. She'd agree to everything he said if it meant that she would finally get out of here soon. Although the mana from earlier didn't feel dangerous at all to her, it was still strange to her. And whoever was behind this thing… she didn't want to meet whoever was actually in charge of this place.

"I need your verbal promise Miss Ellynm. If we could sign a magical contract—"

"Do you want me to sign a blood contract with you or something?" She asked him. Her eye twitched at the lengths he was going through for that flimsy piece of cloak. What was so good about it? Was enchanting really that hard to do that he'd consider his construct's safety more than their own?

Some people were truly, truly strange.

"W-Woah, woah, that's too much Miss." Theodore scratched his head, "You just have to say yes, well anyway. Back to work for me. Let's get this thing over with." He sighed and crouched over the suppression field once more, he continued to inspect it. "This thing would have been way faster if I hadn't had lost my working tool..."

Ellynn wasn't sure if this young man was the expert he said he was… he was taking far too long and he was making excuses. She sat down on the ground for a moment.

.. .

Unlike before where he got his weapon gobbled up by the creature, Han did his best to perform a kick at the creature as he felt his foot dig into the liquidy substance of the slime. It felt like he was going through goop or mud and it quickly started to cover him from his leg and up to his torso and man was it hella weird.

Substance. Darkness. Shadows. Slime.

What kind of weak point did this thing have? He had a one last ditch plan but if there was anything he could learn now, now was the best time. He tried to use Inspect once more.

[ Black Slime - highly malleable and uses it to move with great speeds. This creature seems nigh impregnable as most physical attacks dealt to this creature does not actually affect it due to its slime nature. It has the odd effect of hardening itself. Within its inmost self is a small orb ]

"Thank goodness you have a—jrkfllf." Before Han could actually finish his sentence. The creature's job was done as he was quickly enveloped from head to toe with the slime's body. It seemed to have swallowed him alive.

The slime spat out a dagger from its body and it clattered on the floor.

If the observer could shake their head, they would have done something like that. The third consecutive attempt has been fruitless as well, the second attempt would fall into shambles and the first one was already trapped in their chambers.

There was no escape.