An Encounter!

Reader’s alarm beeping signalled the end of the hour and a half he’d set aside for training. He bundled up his things, patting the tree and casting Heal one last time before heading off down the familiar street. Unarmed strike certainly seemed like it would be useful in confrontations, but at such low level, he wondered whether it would be enough against someone like Will. Likewise heal – it would certainly help to have what amounted to a mana shield, but against someone twice his level? Reader considered the various possibilities and how he would confront each one. It probably came down to what the levels were like, were they more like WoW levels or DnD-

Shlorp.

The unfamiliar sound wrenched Reader out of his thoughts, his mind locking in place briefly as he contemplated the slime – it was unmistakeably a slime – squeezing its way out of a storm grate.

Either I am losing it completely or the world just became 1000% more awesome reacer thought as he cast Observe:

Slime – Lvl 1 Ooze
200/200 HP
An amorphous, immature ooze with a taste for nonliving organic matter. Highly resistant to physical damage.

200 HP! Reader thought. That seems high for level one, mine is way less. But, he realised as it began to slither towards him, it was pretty slow too. Probably one of those low-damage, high-HP creatures you run into in low-level areas, so the noobs can practise their attacks against something other than dummies.

Which is pretty appropriate given my situation, he thought, jumping backwards as the slime lashed out at him with a pseudopod. He tried running past it, throwing out his hand as far as possible to strike while still staying out of it’s reach.

1 dmg

This’ll take forever Reader thought with an inward sigh as the slime slowly bubbled towards him, the upper part of its body leaned away. He tried the same attack again, but this time the slime leaned into him, engulfing his hand.

0 dmg

Reader tried to pull away, nearly losing his balance. The slime’s slick, cool surface didn’t burn like acid as he’d feared, but the sleeve of his uniform began to dissolve where the slime had touched it. He quickly unequipped his clothes and began thrashing at the slime with his free hand, finally managing to break free of its gooey grip.

This cannot be happening Reader thought as, wearing only his boxers, he dodged away from the determined ooze. He tried casting Wind Whip, but it didn’t even do the paltry one damage his fists had done. Then he tried running away from the encounter entirely, only to be brought up short by some kind of invisible barrier.

Some kind of instance. And here I am, without any source of nonphysical damage on this side of it. He briefly wondered whether he’d taken quests in the wrong order, whether he was supposed to have some kind of source of elemental damage by now, but that line of questioning obviously wasn’t going to help either way. _Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck _Reader thought, opening his character sheet as he briskly walked ahead of the thing, trying to find something that might work against the creature. In desperation, he tried casting Heal, in case it damaged the slime the way it did some monsters… and the slime’s health went back to full.

“FUUUUUUCK!” Reader shouted in frustration, punching the thing out of pure anger and getting a faceful of slime for his trouble. He desperately wiped at his eyes and nose, temporarily blinded and smothered, but he managed to clear the stuff and stay on his feet while backing up blind. Things were not looking good.

Craft! Reader’s panicked mind thought as he was backing up. He desperately searched his inventory for something that might do elemental damage. Please please work he prayed as he held his cell phone, a spiral bound notebook and a metal pen in his hands and tried to visualize some kind of electrical weapon. His vision did something funky, and suddenly he was holding

Electric Pushblade
An item crafted in desperation by The Gamer. Grants +2d6 electrical damage to unarmed strikes, can be recharged with an ordinary USB.
86% charge

Reader had to admit the thing looked kind of cool in a cyberunk assassin's creed way as he equipped it, the battery and some wires resting on his forearm as the long silver spike of the pen protruded past what looked like paper mache knuckles on his fist. He stepped in and tried it, grinning as the slime twitched where the weapon touched it.

10 damage. Target stunned

Reader immediately began spamming basic attacks while the stun lasted. He had to dodge it’s attacks a few more times, but with the electric knuckles he felt little danger. His boxers did get eaten in the process, but it was a small price to pay - he felt more badass with his ass out, in fact. He landed one final, shlorpy ZAP on the thing, breathing heavily but exhilarated as it disappeared, leaving a pair of items on the ground.

+100 XP

Reader grinned as he finally saw his XP go up. One more like that and I’m level two!! He thought as looked at the items on the ground. Thirteen dollars cash and a pint of slime which he stored in his inventory. He quickly reequipped his clothes, before casting about for more of the things.