ch 2

I woke up feeling the cold metal pressing against my back. After a few seconds of confusion, my mind gradually began to grasp my surroundings.

Huge black stone vaults filled my field of vision, illuminated by a strange sphere of white light that floated endlessly on the ceiling.

As my mind processed all this, I tried to lift my body off the cold metal plate that was chilling me to the bone.

“Oh, don’t do that,” said a voice beside me.

Her presence seemed to have appeared almost out of nowhere.

My eyes—the only part of my body I could still control—moved gently toward the source of the voice.

The strange woman I’d seen yesterday was sitting there calmly. Her long blonde hair and beautiful features made her look like a mystical creature from a fairy tale.

Unfazed by my sudden awakening, she continued speaking in that calm, measured tone.

“Even though I’ve stabilized your body with magic, the effect won’t last forever. You’re far too weak. So don’t overexert yourself, or you’ll lose what little life force you have left,” she said as she carved strange symbols into a multifaceted magic stone.

I took a quick glance at my body, which was still strapped to the metal bed frame. Hundreds of equally strange symbols were scattered across my body.

I just sat there, trying to figure out what the hell I’d gotten myself into. Was this some evil witch who would enjoy watching me die?

These thoughts crept into my head as Morgan seemed to finish whatever she was doing.

“Well, let’s begin the ritual,” she said with a flat, eerie gentleness. My mind raced; even though I’d agreed, I still didn’t know what any of this was about. I tried to move my mouth, but no sound came out.

My body wouldn’t respond, and before I knew it, Morgan began to chant a long incantation that was unintelligible to my ears. A long chant that seemed to have no end; faint lights flickered randomly, and strange, ethereal symbols danced uncontrollably through the air.

Little by little, my consciousness began to fade. As if made of grains of sand, my vision began to shift and shift, spiraling out of control. Strange, stabbing pains invaded different parts of my body.

The small stone spun uncontrollably through the air, whirring and whirring until, from one moment to the next, it stopped. At that instant, I lost consciousness.

Oh, not exactly. My mind remained conscious, but my vision went completely black. I tried to move my body when a strange sensation washed over me. It was as if my body had been divided into small, disconnected parts.

Each one moved by me independently of the others. A voice rang in my head—a silvery, toneless voice, devoid of rhythm or gender. Almost instinctively,

“Gather the pieces at your center.” I didn’t know where this thought was coming from… but little by little it became more insistent.

Moving each piece separately was like moving every strand of your hair, but with a bit of difficulty, I began to move them. But little by little, like drops of water on a leaf, they began to come together and merge into larger pieces until they all united at my “center.”

Suddenly, a strange world opened up before me. A world in black where white lines vibrated in the shapes of objects. The crackling of a fire, the sound of a drop falling in the distance. Everything generated precise 360-degree images of my surroundings.

“What did they do to me…” As my mind struggled to understand this experience, a female voice rang in my head.

“Looks like you did it! The last 276 attempts had failed, so I didn’t have much faith in this one…” Morgan’s voice spoke directly into my head, rapidly and excitedly.

I tried to speak, but even though I was forming the words, no sound came out.

“Oh, you’re fidgeting too much—just think about what you want to say.”

“What the hell did you do to me!” I shouted—or thought I was shouting. “I turned you into a slime, Fred,” Morgan said, sounding almost happy.

“A slime?..” Morgan spoke with the precision of a magician explaining the most basic magic to a child—like a scholar lecturing a class.

“Yes, your old body was beyond saving, even for me, and even if I could have saved it, you wouldn’t have been able to entertain me at that level.” Morgan spoke as the sound of his voice allowed me to “observe” his expressions with precision.

“Well, to be more exact,” she continued, “you’re not a normal slime—you’re more like an artificial parasite capable of infecting and taking over the bodies of other beings. I used a rock slime as the base…”

While Morgan rambled on, I contemplated this scenario with more calm than I thought I possessed. I was dying—that much was true. Maybe this outcome isn’t so bad.

But now I’d be a monster forever… Wait, take over bodies??

“...so can I regain my human form?” —“And... oh, I was rambling—how rude of me. Yes, in fact, any form you desire—you can take control and become a beautiful elf, some influential noble, or...”

“Eleanor…” Morgan smiled. “Or Eleanor… though in your current state, it’d be difficult to pull off—it’d shatter your magical core in the blink of an eye, haha.” As Morgan talked about how impossible it was, I gradually began to lose hope.

“But”—Morgan said, interrupting himself… “I like your idea; it sounds like it’ll be quite entertaining, so I’ll help you.”

I began to levitate gently as Morgan walked toward the dungeon’s exit.

* * *

Late at night, when the moon was at its highest point, the sounds of revelry filled the Blue Whale Tavern. The tavern was famous throughout Vam, known as the place where adventurers gathered to celebrate after long missions.

There, the Iron Sword was celebrating the success of his latest mission: the slaying of a griffin in northern Leon.

Nubia drank her beer in big gulps, as if it were water. “Damn griffin! It really was a headache that it was immune to electricity magic. Knowing that would have saved us a lot of trouble.”

Eliza, who was drinking a glass of mead, replied, “One out of every 2,879 griffins is born with elemental immunity to magic. I just had bad luck with the matchup. But looking on the bright side… the materials from this hunt are incredible! I’ll be able to do lots of experiments with them!”

Lan Fan interrupted, “I feel like I wasn’t very helpful against that monster… I was on the defensive the whole time.” Eleanor, who had been listening intently while sipping some Herb 3 liqueur, said with a gentle smile,

“Not at all, Lan. You and Nubia were the ones who managed to hold off the monster until the opportunity arose to kill it!” The four of them chatted and laughed as they reflected on the adventure.

“Well, I have to go,” said Lan Fan as she slowly stood up from the table. “Seriously?!!” said Nubia, already a bit tipsy from the beer. “Come on, stay a little longer! You haven’t even had a single drink!”

Lan Fan replied by bowing, placing her fist on her palm. “For a martial artist, the body is an inviolable temple.” “Tch, always the same answer, Lan Lan,” said Nubia, turning away irritably.

Lan Fan left the tavern after saying goodbye to her group. Walking through winding, narrow alleys, the sound of the wind broke the calm of the night.

Past midnight, no one in their right mind would dare to walk through the old quarter of Vam. But for Lan Fan, this had been her home for the past two years, ever since her arrival in the Kingdom of Leon.

Any small-time thug knew better than to mess with her.

That’s why, when Lan Fan crossed the alley leading to her inn and saw a strange woman standing there, something in her instinct told her that something was wrong.

In a matter of seconds, Lan Fan felt a chill run down her spine as cold sweat broke out all over her body. The image of a toad frozen in place before a snake flashed through her mind.

Lan Fan had felt this sensation of being up against a wall only a few times in her life—one of them when she faced her master at the Temple of the Steel Fist. Lan Fan’s first instinct was to unleash her most powerful kick to eliminate this threat.

But before Lan Fan could finish her thought, without a word, the strange woman closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye. With her combat experience, Lan Fan should have intercepted her. But she simply moved so fast that Lan Fan didn’t have time to react.

Grabbing her by the neck, the stranger lifted her in an impossible manner; the woman’s strength did not match her appearance. Lan Fan tried to kick to break free from her grip. But every attempt was in vain, and every kick she threw felt like kicking a solid steel bar. Lan Fan tried to gather combat aura in her legs, but the lack of oxygen began to cloud her vision.

While this was happening, the stranger pulled a small, gelatinous sphere from behind her cloak. The strange liquid slid down Lan’s throat as if it were alive, and she could do little to stop it. Little by little, she lost consciousness.