ALL NOVEL Ch. 21: Extra Slimey
Red led the party to an door marked AUTO LUBE. “There ya go. The map’s in there. You’re in luck, too. This room only has slimes and a few slime girls.”
Alice perked up. “Slimes?”
“Heh, yeah. Nothing like that tamed parasite you’ve got, though. They’re pushovers. With the variants on this level, it’d take days for them to dissolve anyone with a few levels in Lust. They’re sorta hard to kill if you don’t know what you’re doing. Just break the cores and you’re golden. Is anyone a creature collector?”
Sloan grunted to indicate a yes.
“Nice,” Red praised. “You can capture most of the slimes on the smaller end without needing to make them submit. They don’t really have much of a brain; they’re closer to the intellect of a fungus. And you— Alice, right?” Alice nodded. “You should should feed the cores to your skin slime. Just poke em with tentacles and shlorp em right up. Everyone else, your best best it just to stick your hand in there and pop the cores. Except Sabrina.”
“Why’s that?” Sabrina asked.
“You’ve got a secret weapon: my pussy. Sexual fluids are a slime’s favorite food. I mean, who can blame em? That means it’s super easy to lure them into fucking you. So, get them to fuck you, and then you can suck them up into your hellmouth.”
“Won’t I… I don’t know… get full?” Sabrina asked, confused.
“Not at this buffet, sweetheart. Your hellmouth is has its own pocket space, and you absorb the energy of whatever goes in there. Keep your hellmouth well-fed. Trust me on that.”
Sabrina shrugged. Just a new strange element in her life, she supposed. Now better informed, she opened the door.
Inside, the room was an undecorated labyrinth of ceiling-high metal shelves. The shelves were full of the kind of brown boxes that seemed to only exist in offices— the kind an employee would gather their belongings into, teary-eyed on their way out from being fired. Now, though, they were the perfect place for slimes to hide in wait for an ambush.
Without discussing it, the party split up like the Scooby gang, each to their own row of shelves. Sabrina started in on one, and began rifling through boxes. It occurred to her that actively looking for slimes may be counterproductive. She just needed to make sure that if any psychic probes came knocking, they’d find her brain to be DTF, and then play the role of oblivious bimbo.
She bent to look at a box in the bottom shelf, and with an “oops,” she let the crotch of her bodysuit come undone. Then, she spent way too long inspecting the same empty box. Before long, something took the bait.
Even though she was counting on it happening, it still made Sabrina jump when the warm gelatinous tendril tickled between her labia. She wiggled her ass, inviting it to come in. It did so, the slime seemed to flex and solidify turning from a gel into a hard but prehensile dick.
“Nice, you caught one,” Red praised from Sabrina’s back. “Now you’ve just gotta reel it in.”
Sabrina tensed and opened her demonic cervix, intuitively forming a vacuum. She looked back, and saw the creature itself was an amorphous blue blob, only slightly larger than a basketball. It got smaller and smaller until the whole the whole thing got sucked up into Sabrina’s hellmouth. Easy as pie.
Jade wandered down the aisle directly to the left of Sabrina. As she reached the end of the aisle, she turned right, hoping to find Sabrina. Instead the aisle turned like a hallway, so that more shelving walled off where Sabrina’s aisle should be. “Fucky space stuff,” Jade cursed to herself, realizing it may not be straightforward to navigate this maze.
She heard a wet shifting from a box just behind her. By extending itself outside of the box, however, the not-so-sneaky slime put its center of gravity over the edge, knocking itself off of the shelf. Damn, these things were stupid. Jade looked at the transparent orange-yellow pile of goop that spilled out.
Within the mass, there was a small ball ever so slightly shimmered, despite being the same color of the rest of it. Jade reasoned that must be the core. Crouching down, she reached into the slime, which tingled mildly on her skin, and then squeezed down on the ball. It popped easily, and the slime then sizzled and foamed in death. She liked the sound of the ingredient she looted from it, called “honey slime.”
Alice prowled down her aisle, hunting for prey to feed her suit. A dozen tendrils, no thicker than her thumb, explored the boxes around her. It was a strange array of senses that she experienced from these tendrils, as her familiar was an extension of her own body. The closest she could come to describe it was a very three-dimensional sense of taste. Her tendrils could tell generally what substances were near them, and precisely where those materials were in relation to themselves.
Quickly she found one— a slime that reminded her out sour apples. She darted that limp straight into it and found the core. Her own slime subsumed that core, and then bore down on it to crush it and absorb it. Bubba practically vibrated in appreciation for the delicious treat.
Then, there was another, and another. Both were swiftly eaten-up. This was Bubba’s perfect hunting ground. Other slimes must be her natural prey. The implications on dungeon ecosystems fascinated Alice.
Sloan hadn’t made it more then a few feet into her aisle before she slumped down against a shelf and sat, brooding. Coming down here was a big commitment, and this is what it was for? Skulking around for living slime? It just seemed rather silly, now.
A dark green blob slipped out of one of the boxes and began sliding towards Sloan. She groaned at being bothered and pulled a capture pod from her inventory. She tossed it half-heartedly and caught the slime. “Whoopie,” she thought, sarcastically.
“That’s rather rude,” came a soft and feminine voice from down the aisle. Sloan looked back up, and saw a larger mass of slime, in the shape of a woman. She was like green, with parts of her being transparent and other parts opaque. She had an exaggerated hourglass figure, more suited to an animated character than a human.
Sloan was completely taken off-guard, and froze completely. Was this going to be a fight? The slime girl didn’t seem to be in an attack-stance, but that could easily be a ploy.
The slime girl continued, “that was one of my children, you know. You just stole it away from me.”
Sloan blushed, nervously. “Oh… I’m sorry.”
The slime girl approached, skating along the floor on her slippery feet. “You are sorry, aren’t you? But not for taking my child, for something else entirely.” The slime girl then sat across from Sloan, looking in her eyes. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”
The unexpected tenderness hit Sloan harder than she thought possible. She broke down, dejected. She didn’t think she even knew what was wrong, but when she opened her mouth, the answer came in sobs. “I just hate to let people down!”
The slime girl slid forward and embraced Sloan, wrapping her in her soft warmth. “Oh sweetie, it’s okay. Why do you think you’re letting people down?”
“Because I am! I had to quit roller-derby, because I’m… you know, all ‘roided-up on magic now. I can’t play in any competitive sport anymore. My team needed me, and I disqualified myself without even thinking about it. Now, I’m down here, and this is what I gave it all up for, but I’m not good enough for this! That big green bitch completely kicked my ass! Oh… no offense.”
The slime girl smiled. “None taken, deer. You’re being far too hard on yourself. You’ve come to a new chapter in your life, and taken on changes that can be alienating, I imagine, but they don’t need to be. This team you speak of, how do you think they would react if they learned why you can no longer compete with them? Would they hold it against you?”
“Yes,” Sloan said bitterly. As she sat with her lie, it felt wrong. “No. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter why I let them down, I did, and I’m just gonna let my other friends down in here.”
“You seem to care deeply about having something to offer those close to you. If someone else close to you doesn’t sacrifice as much as you do, or isn’t as useful to you, do you judge them for it?”
“Of course not!” Sloan answered, offended. “It doesn’t cost anything to be my friend.”
“That’s exactly right. You’re a lovely person, deer, and I’m sure nothing you do could disappoint those around you. You’re far too hard on yourself.”
“Maybe,” Sloan grumbled. “I’m gonna miss them, though. I liked being on a team with those girls.”
“So be on a team with them,” the slime girl advised.
“I can’t, I just said…”
“You said you can’t compete in sports. Given the choice, do you think they’d want to play their game, without you, or join you down here in this new and exciting chapter in your life.”
Sloan was stunned. Could she do that? Just… bring more people down here? That seemed wrong, somehow, but she couldn’t think of a real reason why. “Huh,” Sloan said. “I don’t know… thank you. You’ve given me a lot to think about.”
“You seem like you do a lot to help other people. I suppose it’s time someone helped you for a change.” Then after a moment she said, “say, do you have any more of those pods with you?” Sloan nodded, and the slime girl asked, “May I see?”
Sloan brought one out and held it aloft. The slime girl examined it, and gave Sloan a considering look. “What’s your name, sweetie?”
“Sloan.”
“Sloan… I like that. My name is Blossom. Call on me whenever you need help— even if it’s just for a shoulder to cry on, alright?” Sloan was going to question this, but before she could, Blossom pressed against the capture pod, and was sucked up into it. Sloan was stunned, and got an alert about the loot that Blossom gave her.
>Floor map acquired.
>Quest complete: Obtain a floor map!
>Rewards:
>10 Base upgrade points.
>10 oz bar of 24 karat gold.
>Freight-train skates! This armor takes the form of combat boots. At will, these boots may transform into roller-skates. Once you have built momentum with these skates, it is exceedingly difficult for an outside force to stop or alter your trajectory against your will.
“Fuck,” Sloan thought. “I’ll be unstoppable.”