Return to Level 0

Chapter 5 King Slime

At the center of the forest clearing made by the monster at its center, the aptly named King slime had been born. With eyes that it didn’t have, it began to look around for the player that had tried to deny its creation. 

In most Virtual Reality games, monsters supposedly had no will and could not produce any kind of emotion, but in Level 0 that was both half true and half false. Luck could feel the killing intent coming from the 1 meter tall slime and he was reminded of just how advanced this game was.

The world and the monsters around him were of course not real but the feeling he got from the monster’s action of glancing around made him clench up in fear.

This was an enemy he was wholly intending to fight, but not this soon. 

Sneaking a peek from behind the tree he used for cover, Luck used [Eye of the Creator] and sized the monster up.

King Slime

Description: A massive blue slime born from the accumulation of magic and will of numerous slimes who wish for vengeance for their killer of kin. Is able to fire spouts of water that can pierce clear through rock. Beware!

Health: 1000/1000

Mana: 100/100

While being unable to see the stats of the monster was unfortunate, Luck was able to gauge how he should engage the enemy from the limited information. While it was suicidal of him to fight such an enemy with such a large health pool, he was incentivized by the level of mana that this creature had.

Regular slimes usually only had 1 mana while mana rich slimes had 5 to 10. These higher mana slimes were the ones he was farming as they had a higher chance of dropping rare magic crystals.

Since this King Slime had an abundance of mana, this meant that whatever it would drop would contain greater magical energies and greater quantity. Sighing to himself to help steady his will, Luck calculated how many times he would have to hit the monster. 

His strength was 10 and his weapon gave additional damage. Estimating that he did about 20 damage per hit, he would have to get 50 good strikes in.

A tall order for him on his first day in the game, but he needed to get it done. If he did it now, he might get what he needed from this mana rich monster.

Gripping his sword with one hand, Luck drew a stone from his pocket. He then threw it to a nearby tree. Making an audible sound, the slime reacted and shot a spout of liquid in that direction. 

The tree was cut in half and the King Slime wondered if it had killed the enemy. Unable to see, the monster could only touch and hear, so it got its answer when it felt Luck’s blade pierce and slash away some of its liquid body.

It writhed in what looked like agony and attempted to smother Luck with its body. It raised up like a pouncing animal on its prey. 

Evading it by a hair’s breadth, the King Slime flopped to the empty ground. 

Luck used this chance to get a few more stabs and slashes in before retreating hastily since a single blow from the creature would likely take half his health. As he attempted to run, he felt the wet feeling of a blue tendril wrapping around his right foot.

Taken off guard, he tripped and began to be dragged towards the King Slime that looked as if it opened its maw to swallow him whole.

Thinking quick, Luck slashed at the tendril with his sword and rolled out of the way. For the second time, the King Slime flopped to the ground but this time did so with a weight that made an audible crash.

Dirt and dust was kicked up, but Luck soldiered on.

“EAT THIS!”

Plunging his sword into the part of the slime that he thought looked like a mouth, Luck kept his attack going after pulling his blade back out. With a fury he never knew he had, Luck slashed away more of the King Slime’s body.

In his future memories, while Luck was of the [Supporter] Class, he was not only relegated as the party's pack mule but was forced by his team and company to take up a role that was wholly unfit for his class.

This was at the front of the party and he would be used to trigger traps and to fight the weaker monsters on his own to allow his other party members to save on expending any energy or mana.

While cruel, he did it to earn money as the bonus for doing such grueling work seemed worth it to pay for his sister’s medical bills. So for years, he allowed himself to suffer the abuse, but it still left a scar on his mind. All the pent up rage at his team exploded in this moment and the system AI pinged him with a notification.

[Player Luck has learned normal skill: Beginner Rage]

Beginner Rage: Allows the user to enter a state of invincibility that lasts for 10 seconds. All parameters are doubled and attack speed increases.

Description: A skill commonly used by party tanks to negate damage. While usable as an offensive technique, this skill takes practice to use in order to not recklessly die in vain bloodlust and fury.

Cooldown: 24 hours

An aura of red began to emit from Luck and his weapon shined with a crimson edge. Feeling himself overcome with a fire in his heart, adrenaline kicked in and his arms flexed as they swung with double his original speed. 

Strike after strike was put upon the King Slime and it flailed in pain. Feeling that it was in danger of dying, the King Slime used its water spouting attack and hit Luck at point blank range.

The King Slime recoiled in fear as it saw that its attack had no effect. As the mist of water began to dissipate, the King Slime saw the frantic and chilling visage of Luck as he smiled down on the ever shrinking monster as he let loose attack after attack, again and again.

The King slime did all that it could to fight back, but nothing worked. Unaffected and unhindered for the short span of 10 seconds, Luck felled his enemy.

Delivering the killing blow before the monster could run, it then dissipated into blue particles of light.

While Luck should have been jumping in joy over his victory, he had instead taken a knee as the after effects of rage were assaulting his mind and body.

Level 0, the most realistic game of all VRMMORPG’s, made sure that gameplay was as close to real life as possible. Which meant that anything straining that the player did would take its toll by replicating the pangs of muscle pain. Of course, the real pain caused by straining skills was all imaginary and did not pose any threat to a player's life.

Rage was one such skill and it was great for burst damage or for negating damage, but since Luck had never used this skill before he was unaccustomed to its aftereffects.

Feeling as if his whole body was cramping up, Luck tried to at least get into a comfortable posture. He was not worried about being attacked as the area should be clear since he had slayed all the slimes in the area.

Using what little mobility he had, Luck propped himself against a nearby tree as he caught his breath and endured the uncomfortable cramping.

He fought through the pain and was able to see the loot he had obtained. Sitting nearby was what looked like a massive pile of magic crystals the size of peanuts. But what caught his attention was the magic crystal the size of a fist that was sitting atop the pile like a cherry on top of a sundae.

With his [Eye of the Creator]. he grinned as he identified the loot.

Magic Crystal (Medium)

Rarity: Rare

Description: The modest heart of the vicious King Slime. It contains a high amount of magic energy and can be used in alchemy to create numerous potions of a variety of effects. Its high amount of magic energy can also be used to create magic tools with blacksmithing or other crafting classes. This can only be dropped by creatures with high mana capacities.

Luck did not expect to get this item so soon as the rate of its drop was low in this area and had planned to farm it in another place. While one was not enough for his purposes, this would get him ahead of schedule.

Feeling that he had rested enough after the cramping subsided, Luck got up and began stowing away the magic crystals into his backpack. He took a tally and he was glad to have met his quota for today. 

In all, he had gained 100 small magic crystals and 1 medium magic crystal.

His intention with these items were to create the needed potions using his beginner alchemy. He, of course, would need to go into the city to buy the more common ingredients and tools for the process.

While he initially had no money, he had gained a small sum from all the slimes he slayed. The type of money used in Level 0 was not the typical gold or silver but instead used a digital currency.

Known as D-Credits, these were a digital in-game currency that could be converted to gold coins or silver coins for trading purposes, but in general the players kept their currency in the form of digital credits as it was more secure.

Checking his in game wallet in his menu, Luck saw that he had obtained a little over 10,000 D-Credits. Remembering that slimes only gave 1 to 2 D-Credits per kill, he estimated that he must have fought the equivalent of 10,000 slimes.

Luck mused that he should have gotten some kind of title for this, but was glad that he didn’t since a title like Slime Slayer seemed embarrassing and cringy.

After laughing at the thought, he saw his status screen indicator blink.

“What the? I got two skills today? Was it a weapon skill or was it something else?”

Tapping the icon to pull up his status screen, he saw a third class skill.

“Exchange?”

Extra line (Not used)

While not fitting in the current medieval setting of the game, this was overlooked as the players were more interested in the fact that digital ingame credits could be turned into real life credits.

This required obtaining certain privileges in game that could only be obtained by end game players.