“Bye, silly lady!” Ilgat called, waving to me before clambering up the ladder into one of the treehouses with hanging walkways between them. Fuck, it was so cool up there. I tried to ignore the tightness in my stomach and the tears I kept having to blink away as Gozka walked me to the edge of camp.
“I’m sorry there's not more we could do for ya, hun,” she sighed. “But Anma is right. If you’re infected with a royal slime, then that's a threat to anyone around you.”
I let out a sharp exhale. I was feeling more numb at this point than anything else. Getting my shit together hadn’t exactly fixed anything. Now I was being kicked out to spend the night in the woods, alone.
“What happens when it spawns?” I asked uneasily, rubbing my forearm to warm myself up.
Gozka smiled uneasily. “Hard to know really, depends on the kind of slime. Weak slimes will just dissolve you from the inside out to grow big as quickly as possible. More powerful slimes will often take over and puppet the host. It’s hard to say, really. Unfortunately, the hive here is fairly recent. So we still don’t really know how it tends to operate.”
That wasn’t exactly hopeful. And considering I was already parasitized, I really wasn’t feeling optimistic. “And there’s no way to get it out?” I grimaced.
“Anma’s good at that. So… if what’s inside you is too powerful for her skills, then it’s real bad, hun,” Gozka sighed. “Do you want to write a letter to anyone? We can get it where it needs to go.”
I shook my head numbly. “No… I… I don’t know anyone here.”
She gave me a funny look. I sighed. At this point, what did it matter? I was going to get taken over by the slime for god knows what. Who knew slimes could be so dangerous? How was I supposed to know?
Now I was… infected. A thing that had stolen all my power was now incubating inside me. This was a living nightmare.
“Well… thanks for your hospitality,” I smiled grimly. “It was nice to share a meal.”
Gozka nodded, offering me a jagged-toothed smile. “It was lovely to meet you, Pamela. Good luck out there.”
With that, it was my turn to leave. To walk into the woods never to return. It was fucking dystopian. I let out a sigh as I just continued to stand there.
“Okay, bye,” I muttered, unable to look at her as I began walking away. I refused to look over my shoulder at the only kind faces I had ever met in this world. I was just trying to keep myself together.
At least it was inevitable. None of it mattered anymore. My fate was sealed. It had been sealed within moments of arriving here. Sorry, Michelle, but it wasn’t my fault I’d be back in that dumb office so soon. I had done my best. Looking back at my single day in this world, yeah…
Everything has gone wrong, and there wasn’t anything I could have done differently. There was so much I hadn’t known and couldn’t have prepared for. That was life.
Tears running down my cheeks, I walked back into the trees. I was fairly sure I remembered the vague direction of the river at least. Maybe I could wash some of this mud off before my time was up.
Thanks to the simple shoes I had been provided, I navigated the woods with far less pain. My body still really hurt, and I definitely didn’t feel so good. But at this point, I found it harder to mind quite as much. It didn’t matter so much anymore.
As sad as it was, it was also a relief. Reincarnating in this world had been a mistake. It had been stupid, really, stumbling into a fantastical world simply to have power.
Sharing a meal with the goblins had meant so much more than my few moments of demigodhood.
I vaguely retraced my steps as the sky turned red with the setting sun. The goblins really had been generous, giving me a whole set of clothes. I was a stranger, a stranger they had to promptly exile for their own safety.
But they had been kind when I had been terrified. It meant so stupidly much to me.
I wiped the tears from my cheek. It was a long walk back, though I didn’t even know if I was going in the right direction. Minute by minute, it got darker. I should have asked for a torch. At this rate, I was going to be stumbling around the woods in pitch black.
Just my luck.
It was cold. I should have hung onto the cloak. No winter cold, but a chilly summer night.
I was squinting through the dim light when I finally found the creek again. The walk back had been oddly cathartic, and just having clothes was amazing. I stumbled over to the bank to sit. In the clearing, the stairs shone bright.
It wasn’t a night sky I recognized; it wasn’t a sky I had ever seen before. This world felt so fleeting, yet it was undoubtedly real. That was a whole existential topic for another time, if I had another time.
Jesus, without the light pollution, it was a view you could only get on earth with fancy cameras. It was… magnificent.
Not a bad view to get consumed by a slime to all things considered. I kicked my feet. I just felt weird about the whole thing, really. Had I died looking up at the stars on earth?
Probably not. No, definitely not. I couldn’t remember the last time I had simply breathed in the world around me. Still, it was lonely.
Stupid parasite slime. I hadn’t gained a single stat point. I had literally missed out on the entire point of a system. I hadn’t gotten to see a dinosaur either, or any number of fantastical creatures. Though the goblins had been cool, nothing like I had imagined. They were just people, I mean, it made sense, but still… I got to hang out with a non-human species of people. How many humans could say that?
Actually, probably tons. But, from Earth? I was the only one. Or… one of a few? It didn’t matter. I got to experience a cool thing that few others did. What a good way to kick off my transition into the afterlife.
Fuck it was cold. All I could make out were shapes. The water was a soothing sound as it continued to flow. I stood and carefully made my way back to the treeline. Finding a nice patch of moss and grass, I lay down. It wasn’t comfortable, regardless of which way I rolled; a rock dug into me somewhere.
But I didn’t mind so much. I stared up at the stars and made peace with the life I had lived.
Or tried to anyway, considering my sheer exhaustion, I passed right out before I remotely came close to any kind of enlightenment.
Mythic Empress Slime has completed pupation.
Mythic Empress Slime has chosen the co-existence path.
You have gained the profession skill [Telepathic Link].
[Telepathic Link] has been established with Mythic Empress Slime.
“Sup, loser, we got work to do.”
My eyes snapped open as I jerked awake. I scrambled to take in all the messages. Birds chirped, the stream babbled, and the sun shone once again in the sky. I had survived.
I had fucking survived.
“Duh, do you have any idea how useful [Protagonist’s Progression] is? I’m not gonna waste you.”
I froze. Those weren't my thoughts. I had gained a skill? The slime had chosen a path of co-existence? What did that even mean? I mean it sounded good. I was still alive, that was pretty good.
“Hello?” I asked, voice gravely from sleep.
“You don’t have to talk out loud. It ruins the whole point of a telepathic link,” a voice that was very much both my own and not scoffed in my head.
What the actual fuck.
“Yeah, yeah, freak out later. My name is… well, actually I don’t have one… I just kinda started existing. I know your name’s Pamela, so we can skip the dumb introduction. I modelled myself on your neural pathways cus I didn’t have much to work with, so if you start glitching out, that's why. Ooo, glitching, that's a fun word. Computers. Ipads. YouTube. Man, you’re full of wacky stuff.”
No, actually. No.
I lay back down and closed my eyes. No, thank you, universe. I refused. Nope. I wasn’t doing whatever this was. I had suffered enough. I didn’t need more bullshit shanangins, thank you very much.
I was going back to sleep; at least the sun was properly up. And if the voice in my head wasn’t going to give me some coffee, then I wouldn’t hear otherwise.
“Okayyyy… not a morning person. Jeeze. It’s fine, I still gotta finish settling in anyway. Moving into a new space is always a lot of work… or so I’m told? Anyway, I’ll try not to eat anything important. Don’t ya worry about it.”
I snapped my eyes open. Oh, what a delightful image to make me never want to sleep again.