The Crystalline Passageway

Let me think this through. The Swirly passageway could be good, but I think the crystal tunnel seems better. I don’t want to go down the other two. The silent passage seems to eerie, and the random passage could hold any monsters in the game.

At least the crystal tunnel looks soothing. I wouldn’t want to go down a path that makes me more uncomfortable than I already am. And crystal monsters may be hard to beat, but they usually are slow moving, so if I have enough time, I could easily win.

I begin to make my way down the tunnel, only light by the soft hued glow of purple. It doesn’t take too much time for the tunnel to reach a new room, And for the background music to adapt, now playing a ‘wind chime’ like melody.

This room seemed to also be laden with many crystals. Many sharp and jagged, and I begin to question my choice to go down this path. The crystals lining the walls and edges of the floor were multi colored, and began to glow more brightly, as if I had flipped a dimmer switch, until the room glowed a nice visible color.

The room was empty, or at least, I though it was. Ambushes were a common thing this game did, so I knew I had to stay vigilant.

*Drip*

“Huh? What was that?”

*Drip*

Looking down at the floor, I see a small puddle of a murky purple substance. Turning my head back upwards, I can see that a crystal jutting out from the ceiling of the room is dripping.

“Oh no.”

The dripping steadily increased, but not only from that point. A second point on the ceiling also began to drip. I knew what was going on. The most annoying ambush in the game. Slimes…

After they dropped down to the floor for about a minute, you saw the puddle begin to glow. It shines just a bit and begins to move on its own, forming two small balls of slime. Though these two were… odd. The slime to my left was a glittery mess. As if someone had poured glitter and confetti onto it, meanwhile, the slime on the right had some kind of red ball inside of it… maybe it was a treasure or artifact I could use?

[Lv. 1 Glitter slime]

[Lv. 2 Item Slime]

Looking at their names wasn’t very helpful, but at least I knew they wouldn’t kill me very easily. But my biggest problem began to unfold in my mind. To kill slimes I need a weapon. I can’t just use my fist, or the slime will consume me. But I don’t have any equipment. all I have are these crystals.

Suddenly, the glitter slime jump forward, lung towards my head, the only choice I had was to block. Putting an arm up, it lands soft on my arm… this was all so surreal. It felt real. I could really feel the cold slimy mess that was wrapping around my arm, and even got up to the shoulder

But I didn’t have time to wonder about how this happened, as the slime was beginning to lower my health. I quickly had an idea. Using the leverage of my arm. I quickly swung it, flinging the slime towards the wall, where it was splatted against the sharp rocks, killing it instantly.

Looking down at my now damp arm, I could see one of the oddest things I had ever seen, even in a place like this… my left hand was now wearing a white glove, large and somewhat cartoonish, and my skin has turned a white, like someone smearing white makeup on it. It was also covered in polka dots, and the glitter from the slime, though the glitter seemed to just rub off. Not only that, but the sleeve of my shoulder had turned into a frilly, polka dotted, puffy sleeve that still maintained as part of my t-shirt

I would normally be confused and somewhat horrified, but the other slime began to lunge towards me. This time using my right arm, I used the same tactic. Slamming the slime against the wall, instantly killing it.

Thankfully I didn’t have to deal with any more slimes. I sat for a moment, catching my breath, looking down at my arm, before scream a loud, what the fuck, into the air.

My arm looked like that of some kind of clown. How the hell do I turn it back? Is this just makeup, or is my skin actually white? I rub my skin, and nothing seems to smear. Holy shit, this is real.

I stand up, and walk over to the crystal wall, picking up the small red ball, only to realize, it’s actually the nose of a clown… is this whole place gonna turn me into a clown?!

I open my inventory and notice a distinct change. That being one of my armor slots.

Torso: Baggy Blue Shirt

[Left Arm Clownified]

And secondly, I look down to the nose item, reading it off.

[Red Clown Nose]

: + Agility

: + Persuasion

: ++ Goofiness

It actually didn’t seem to have bad stats, though I had never seen ‘goofiness’ before. Agility is always useful, and persuasion can be useful if I run into high intellect monsters later on in the game. So, what the hell? I slide it on my nose and see it move to my head armor slot.

I can immediately feel my leg bones grow a bit stronger and more flexible. I suppose that makes sense with the agility modifier. My persuasion also increases, though I don’t change physically. Okay. I need to move to the next room…

There are two more tunnels, one going left with the similar purple crystal pattern, and one going to the right with a pink crystal pattern… but which do I chose. Something about this whole situation. My arm, my body, these tunnels. I would normally be wowed be the realistic look of a childhood game, but for some reason, I begin to giggle. This whole situation was so funny for some reason. But anyway, I need to make a decision.