Consume and Level Up ch. 1 (Danmachi/That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime) (Slime SI) (Patreon)

“Oh shit, oh fuck, oh shit, oh shit, oh shiiiiittttt!!!!” I gasped out, rolling on the floor for dear fucking life, wishing for nothing more in this world than a pair of legs so I could beat feet. Instead, I was forced to roll across the lumpy and uneven floor with as much speed as I could muster. And, had to say, it wasn’t a lot.

“Rahh!” I heard a monster shout a split second before it lunged at me. I saw it even though it was directly behind me -- it was a fucked up-looking gremlin thing. Molty green skin, large yellow eyes with cat-like pupils, long tapered ears, and the derpiest-looking face that I had ever seen in my entire life. A face that inspired all kinds of terror in me because of its razor-sharp claws that slashed into my… well, I guess it would be my back, technically.

It wasn’t blood or meat that he tore out of me. It was goop. Slime, really. For that’s what I was after waking up in a god-forsaken wall and, as it would turn out, a bunch of goblins were spawn camping me because I got jumped the moment I spilled out of the crack. I didn’t feel any pain as some of me splashed out onto the cavern floor which, oddly enough, had a systematic set of glowing rocks to illuminate it. Instead, what I felt was… reduced. Like there was a little less me to go around.

Beyond that, I was unharmed and I did my best to speed up. “Help! Help! Someone help! I’m being- fire! There’s a fire!” I shouted, recalling something from somewhere that people were more likely to interfere if they thought there was a fire. Because their shit might burn down, or fires were cool. Didn’t know, and didn’t particularly care. I was a little too busy ducking and dodging hands as the three goblins were chasing me down.

I didn’t have legs. I didn’t have arms. Technically speaking, I didn’t even have eyes or a mouth. I was just a little bucket full of bluish jello and I was getting my shit shoved in. Fighting wasn’t even in the cards. All I could do is scream out for help in this stupidly huge cave system and hoped someone dealt with my attackers for me. And maybe then I could get some answers -- like where was I? Why was I a slime? Whats up with the goblin squad that was determined to stomp me?

“HEELLLLPPPP!” I cried out, my voice echoing down the tunnels. The goblins seemed spurned on my desperation because I had to dodge out of the way -- solidifying or bending my body out of the way -- of a half dozen rapid succession strikes. Because of it, I almost missed the sound of footsteps. A few of them. I rounded a corner and if I still had a heart, it would have leapt to my throat in pure relief when I saw people coming my way.

One of them was a woman -- a pretty one. Blonde hair, green eyes, and a weird green hood that made her head look like the bud of a flower because it was shaped like pedals. I wasn’t the fashion police, so whatever. More importantly, she was carrying a weapon. A stick, to be more precise. Her expression was grave as she rapidly closed the distance between us. I’m not sure if it was a size difference thing considering I barely came up to her knee, but she was moving fast.

She was flanked by a red-headed girl with bright green eyes. In her hands was an actual weapon -- a rapier. I would have preferred a gun. Or a rocket launcher. Still, I think they could get rid of the monsters all the same. The redhead kept pace with the blonde girl, “Ryuu! Careful with the slime. It could drown you,” she called out.

Wait, drown? That was an option? I dunno -- that felt… that felt a little dark-

“Hmph,” Ryuu returned, and with a final burst of speed, she was upon us. That little stick of hers was fucking terrifying, I decided when I saw her effortlessly cut through all three of the goblins that were chasing me for what felt like an entire mile.

“Come on! Someone needs our help,” the redhead said, passing by me.

“Er-”

Whatever I was about to say died in my nonexistant throat. Because, almost thoughtlessly, Ryuu flicked her wooden blade at me, cutting me in half. I didn’t feel any pain, but I felt something inside of me break. Something that I didn’t know was there.

Then everything went dark.

…

My consciousness returned to me slowly as I heard a familiar cracking sound and my body spilled out of the wall to reform on the floor. As it turns out, coming back from death feels a lot like waking up after a long nap. The kind that left you scrambling for the calendar to make sure you didn’t sleep through the year and so tired that it felt like you could. All the same, by the time I was on the floor, awareness returned to me.

“That… absolute… bitch! She killed me!” I exclaimed, replaying my last moments in my head. She just took a swing at me and she hit something in me. And I died. Again. I couldn’t even tell what she hit because I couldn’t look inside of myself. Whatever she hit was a weak point, though. I got torn up by those goblins and I didn’t feel a thing, but a single swing and she put me in the dirt. Or wall. Whatever. I glanced around at the cavern tunnel that I was in, looking for my murderer.

Instead, I saw that I didn’t recognize where I was. This wasn’t the same spot that I came from last time. It was darker, for one. But, within that darkness, a figure revealed itself. A goblin. This one, however, was carrying a club. Where he got it, I hadn’t a clue because I wasn’t seeing any trees down here. Hopefully, it meant that we were close to an exit to this literal hell hole.

“Queh?” the goblin questioned, giving me some serious side-eye. The others jumped me right out the gate. This one was looking at me like he wasn’t entirely sure what I was, but his face was twisting. As if the more he looked at me, the more pissed off he got until it ended with him hissing at me. “Rahhh!” He screeched, sprinting forward.

Keenly aware of my weak point, I dodged back out of the downward swing that struck the ground as my body bent into a U. Drowning. Is that was the redhead said? I didn’t think about it and just acted, throwing myself forward at the goblin’s face with a splat. It gagged around me, his hands going up to my body as I enveloped his head and tearing chunks out of me. I realized that it wasn’t enough and I found the entrances into his body -- I slid down the goblin’s throat and nose, protecting myself.

The goblin thrashed, tearing at his throat with enough force that I felt him scratching at me. It gagged and tried to cough, to dislodge me from his throat. He fell to a knee, then on his face, still thrashing. It took an antagonizing long few minutes for the goblin to go still and…

“That didn’t feel right,” I decided, not too sure how I felt about that one. It was trying to kill me. It was pure self-defense. No regrets there, but… drowning? That wasn’t a quick and painless way to go. It was a bad way to go. It just didn’t feel good. Would still do it if I had to, but… yeah, I’d prefer not having to. I started to flow out of the goblin, only to pause when I realized that the goblin was sinking into me, like I was dragging him into my goop.

It felt pretty weird until I reached something -- a quick look at it by shifting where my eyes were on my body showed that it was a tiny purple gem. It was hardly larger than a pinky nail, but when it was pulled into my body, I felt… power. I wasn’t entirely sure how to describe it. It was like suddenly getting the gains of going to the gym for a month. Sure, the gains might not be anything insane, but getting them all at once left me feeling stronger. I felt like… more.

Goblin form created.

“Wait, wut?” I muttered, the last of the goblin dragged into me and vanishing without a trace. Goblin form? Wait, I could have legs? And arms?! Sign me the fuck up! It was with that thought the transformation began -- it was something instinctual, almost like walking. My body just knew what to do. My jelly-like body began to shift, rising and condensing until I stood at about three feet tall. I marveled at my new body, seeing the goblin claws that had been tearing chunks out of me. Oh, god. I had no idea how much I missed having opposable thumbs.

My attention was stolen by screeching and hissing. I looked up to see a goblin crawling out of the wall, like I did -- and I had to say, it looked creepy seeing it. The moment it was birthed, it started squaring up and hissing at me. I guess goblins don’t like slimes? How could it see through my disguise? I thought it would think I was one of him? Were goblins territorial when they weren’t stomping my ass? I had no clue.

“Bro, back off,” I said- tried to, at least. Talking was weird when all your teeth were pointy, and my tongue felt huge and cumbersome. “I’ll fuck you up if you don’t back off!” I tried to warn the creature away, but it paid no mind to my warnings and charged right at me.

I had been in exactly one fight in my life. It was the time I skipped in line for wiffle ball as a kid. And I lost that fight.

The goblin came at me with what I could only describe as crackhead energy, just making wild swings at me as he hissed and spit. I searched the ground for that club the other goblin had, only to discover that it had apparently vanished without a trace, forcing me to take a hit to the side of the head. Despite the goblin body, I was still made out of goop and my body offered about as much resistance as jello did to a spoon. My face splashed out onto the floor, and I managed to deliver a wide haymaker that caught the goblin on the chin, knocking him to the side.

I fell upon the goblin, hesitating at first, but when he started tearing at my chest, I reacted on instinct. I lashed out with my claws, and they hardened in response. At least, that’s what I think was happening because instead of splashing on impact, my claws tore into the goblin, making it cry out in absolute agony. I hesitated at the sound and I paid the price for it. The goblin scrambled out of my grip and caught me in the head again, forcing me to tackle it.

This time I didn’t hesitate.

…

I don’t know what those purple stones were, but they were awesome. Every creature seemed to have one somewhere in its body, and some were bigger than others, but they all left me feeling stronger with each one I absorbed. I ended up absorbing a couple because, as it turned out… no one in this massive cavern liked me. At all. As a matter of fact, I must have had a kill-on-sight hit put out on me because every single time I encountered a goblin, they bum-rushed me and did their absolute damnedest to kill me.

Violence did get easier with exposure, I learned as I wandered the halls. I found a set of stairs not long ago -- something that stood out considering the rough walls. Weirder still, when I reached the top of the stairs… I thought I was out of this hellhole, only for more goblins to jump me. The rough stone floors and walls were replaced with man-made tiles and smoothed walls. Even the lanterns lining the walls were evenly spaced.

It looked man-made, but it wasn’t. Not unless someone took the time to carve a brick stone look into the floor. The entire place didn’t make an ounce of sense and I was done wracking my brain for answers. All I knew was this place was blatant bullshit and I just wanted out.

I stalked through the halls, my gaze sweeping back and forth, front and back, up and down -- more than once this place literally dropped a goblin directly on top of me. Which was another thing I knew. This place wanted me dead and dying twice was more than enough for me. More than that, though, I was hoping to find someone. Anyone. If not for answers, then because they could show me the exit.

I stuck with the hang-left rule from my dungeon crawler days in Skyrim, and that helped me feel less lost. I just had to keep going left and eventually, I would arrive at the exit. That was the theory, at least. I really didn’t want to think about this place switching up the layout just to keep me here.

It was as I was keeping on with the hang-left rule that I heard it. The sounds of combat. My nonexistent heart soared. I tried to keep myself in check, but I found myself rushing forward toward the sounds, hoping to see people. However, as I went to round a corner, I found my feet suddenly glued to the floor. An image flashed through my mind of a rapidly nearing piece of wood until it entered my head…

Swallowing thickly, I peeked around the corner to see two people and what could be considered a metric shitload of goblins. Only one of them was fighting -- a dark haired teenager that couldn’t be older than eighteen at the oldest. Dark black hair that had a wavy curl as it flowed down to his shoulders, dark green eyes, and he was handsome. Could do with a few meals, though. He wielded a short sword and a dagger in a reverse grip, his body lined with cuts and slashes.

“You bitch!” He snarled at the other person, and she was quite a sight. She was about my height, but I couldn’t see her face because of the ragged brown cloak that she wore. What I did see was a big ass bag that was on her shoulders that she hefted with absolute ease. About ten of me could fit in that bag and it looked jam-packed full of stuff to the point it was bursting at the seams.

He dodged a strike from a goblin before he kicked it her way. I started to step forward, only to pause when she dropped that goblin like a stone with a single arrow to the forehead. I swallowed a lump in my throat, realizing I just about rounded the corner looking like a goblin. And given Ryuu dropped me out of reflex, I don’t think transforming into a slime would help my reception. Should… I help them?

“Mr. Rudeus shouldn’t be so mean to supporters,” a distinctly female voice said, shifting ever so slightly. It was then that I noticed that half of her hood was soaked through with blood and it was dripping down her face. “Especially when he dives into the dungeon alone…” she said, taking a step back. Then another. An expression of fear flashed across Rudeus’ face, and I went still.

“Don’t! I- I’m sorry for hitting you! I’ll give you an even share of the pot! D-don’t leave me- gah!” He cried out when a goblin’s claws slashed into his side. A deep cut that went through his thin cotton shirt like it wasn’t even there. His expression was a mask of fear as he just barely managed to dodge the next attack, and block the next. But as he blocked, another goblin lashed out, catching him behind the knee.

“Goodbye, Mr. Rudeus,” the girl said, turning her back on him and running down the hallway. She left him to die. My jaw dropped at that -- I don’t really know what was going on, but that was some cold shit.

“I’ll kill you!” He snarled after her, killing a goblin with a downward thrust, only for another to bite into his forearm. There were still six of them left. “I’m going to get out of this! And I’m going to hunt you down and feed you to these things!” He shouted, howling with rage and pain as another goblin slashed at his face, cutting his cheek, before he hacked at it. I watched, frozen with indecision as he hacked at the goblins that hacked at him in turn.

Slowly, his white shirt was dyed red with blood. It splashed down on the stones, and drops flung off of his blades. The six goblins became five, then four, then three. His expression was one of fury as he fought against the goblins, but as his injuries mounted, that was replaced with a sense of fear, even as their numbers dwindled. I wasn’t sure what was the turning point, but he tried turning on his heel. Deciding to cut his losses, he was going to run.

He chose a poor moment for it, though because almost as soon as he did, a goblin threw himself at his legs, and dug a claw across his Achilles tendon. I heard a loud snap at the tendon shot up, rendering the leg useless as it collapsed underneath him. “No!” He cried out in fear, twisting around to stab the goblin on his leg in the eye, but the other two leaped onto him.

It was then that I chose to move. I wish I could say it was because of strategy, but it wasn’t. I had never seen anything like it. People said video games desensitized people to violence and gore, but that was the biggest load of bullshit I had ever heard in my life. My feet were rooted to the spot in fear -- fear of fighting so many goblins at once, fear that Rudeus might kill me, and just horror at the brutality of it.

“Hold on!” I called out, making one of the goblins look over at me just in time for me to slash at his throat. My nails were sharp and tough -- and they only got tougher with each purple stone that I absorbed. It squealed, his hands going to his neck, and that made the other look up in surprise, blood splashed all over his face with a chunk of meat in his jaws. Tacking him off of Rudeus, I struggled to get on top of the goblin but found that I was stronger than it.

My body was more solid and it offered resistance when the goblin lashed out at me, hissing all the while. Grabbing the goblin’s head, I started bashing it into the ground, hearing several thunks before they started to sound wet. Then, with a crack, the goblin underneath me went still. I didn’t need to breathe, but one still heaved out of me before I heard a wet gasp from Rudeus. My attention snapped to him and if I had guts they would have been twisting themselves into knots as I saw him trying to shove his insides back inside of him.

“You-I- Hey, hey, focus on me. You’re going to be okay,” I lied to him, scrambling over to his side as I took in his injuries. The closest thing I had to medical training was playing Operation as a kid. Rudeus’ dark green eyes slid to me, a gasp escaping him and blood bubbled out of his mouth, dripping down the side of his cheek. I had no idea what to do. “You’re going to be okay. Just focus on me. Okay, just focus on me,” I told him, my hands going to his wounds, but he had so many.

Rudeus tried to say something, but I couldn’t hear it. It was just a wet gasping sound that was followed by a sigh that bubbled in his throat. I knew what it meant even before his body started to flow into me. I…

“I’m sorry,” I told him, my voice small and quiet. “If it helps at all, you’ll probably end up here like I did. And I didn’t get any last words either,” I told him, disquieted as his body was pulled into me. I felt myself growing stronger. He must have had some of those purple gems on him or something because I felt my strength leap when the last of him was pulled into me.

Rudeus Blackheart form created.

Stats absorbed:

Strength: 2

Endurance: 4

Dexterity: 10

Agility: 8

Magic: 3

Spell absorbed

True Strike

Chant:

My hand and intent

guiding forth this blade

Striking true against my enemies

The transformation started to take hold as soon as I saw the message in my mind. My body grew in size, the dark green leathery skin replaced with a pale pinkish hue and I felt hair falling in my face. To my faint surprise, I had his clothes. Sort of. The clothes were still me, but they looked like a pair of black pants, a white cotton shirt, and dark black boots. I looked down at my hands to see that I even had callouses.

This felt like it was my fault. Just a little bit. If I hadn’t been so scared…

No. No point in dwelling. If Rudeus was lucky, he would reincarnate as a much stronger and cooler monster than a slime.

A sigh escaped me before I rose to my full height. I think I stood at around five foot something. Five foot eight at the tallest. Rolling my shoulders, I decided that it felt good to be human. Casting a glance at the fallen weapons, I walked over and grabbed them, sliding them into the sheaths at my belt. Then I went about absorbing the goblin corpses. Waste not, want not.

When I was done, if it wasn’t for the blood on the stone, you’d never know someone died here. “Sorry, but it looks like I’ll be borrowing your face for a bit,” I told Rudeus’ ghost before I started walking, heading in the direction that girl had gone. I didn’t know the whole situation, but that girl killed Rudeus. She might not have pulled the trigger, she might even have had her reasons for it, but she left him to die at the hands of monsters. That really didn’t sit well with me.

Still, I imagine she was heading to the exit, so went in that direction. Sticking with my hang-left rule, it was an hour later before I heard it. Not the sounds of combat but the sounds of talking. I swallowed a lump in my throat and drifted closer to it, drawn to the sounds like a moth to a flame. I saw a staircase, like the one I saw before, and as I neared, the sources of the voices descended.

Like Ryuu and Rudeus, they had weapons. These people, however, had armor too. Big bulky stuff and they were all smiles as they shouldered their weapons. “I’m going to catch that Jack Bird even if it’s the last thing I do! Think of what I could do with a million valis!”

His companion laughed, the two paying no notice of me as they passed me by. I was half frozen, expecting them to attack me like everything else has down here. “You’d waste it all on booze and girls before the day was over,” his companion remarked. They were coming down here willingly? To fight monsters?

My eyes narrowed at their backs before I turned my attention to the staircase. Slowly, and cautiously, I headed up the stairs of a long, winding, staircase. I heard people talking, their voices merging together in a sea of noise that just got louder the closer I got. I prepared myself when I reached the top -- I’m not sure what I was preparing myself for… but what I saw certainly wasn’t it.

I didn’t know what I expected. Maybe Cerberus guarding the gate to hell.

A bank lobby… well, that wasn’t even on the list.

I openly gaped as I left that hellhole behind, stepping into an upscale bank lobby that was filled with people. A lot of people. Some of those people, I’m not entirely sure were people. Mostly because I’m pretty sure that humans weren’t supposed to have cat ears or a tail. There were lines of them for bank tellers -- cat girls, cat guys, short and stocky people that… I think were dwarves considering that one of the bank tellers was clearly an elf, based on her ears.

At the front of the line, I saw the odd-looking people -- all of which were heavily armed -- handing over purple stones of varying sizes in exchange for golden coins.

Stumbling forward, I nearly ran into someone on my way out. I’m pretty sure they insulted me, but I barely heard them as I headed for the door. Licking my lips, my mouth feeling dry, I pushed open the door to reveal a city. The roads were made out of cobblestone, the buildings of brick while the people were the same mix of humans, animal people, dwarves, elves, and midgets that I saw inside of the building.

My gaze caught sight of a carriage getting pulled along down a wide street and I felt my legs growing weak, so I stumbled forward and took a step on the top step to the building. My head drifted back to see the building itself… only to be forced to look up and up and up at a marble spire that seemed to stretch up to the heavens themselves.

Right.

“What the fuck?!”

...

My insomnia has been acting up, so I typed this one out in a couple of hours to knock myself out. It was years ago -- not that long after I first posted the first chapter of Going Native, but I'm pretty sure that I posed the first Danmachi story on this site with Power Corrupts. Towards the tail end of the jump -- mostly because of my own fuck ups and new-author-itis -- I burnt out hard on Danmachi. It's only been in the past year or so that I've been able to consume any danmachi content. This idea was born due to watching the newest season and watching That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime for the first time.

So, I'm not entirely sure where I would want to go with this one if it did become a full fledged story, so I'd figure I'd get some feedback from all of you about what direction you would be interested in seeing.