Cave Slime

Don't go inside the cave

That's what the villagers told the children at least once a day. The cave in question was a naturally formed cave in that stood near their village. Supposedly, it was currently empty. In the past, more than a hundred year ago, when their predecessor decided to built a small village, they were attacked by monsters coming from the inside of the cave. Help came from the soldiers and adventurers in the area, and they cleared the cave from monsters. Still, the villagers were reluctant to enter, so they forbid access to the cave. This rule persist for several generations, parents even made it as a ghost story to scare their children. Now, I'm sure you could guess what would happen next. A child or children disobeyed their parents and broke the rule. They came inside the cave, a monster attack, bad things happen.

So, one day, a group of children felt that the stories and the prohibition of going to the cave was a load of bollocks. It's their parents' fault, mostly. Their bedtime / ghost stories about the cave was full of exaggerations and fantasy like situations. This was done because they wanted to impress or scare their children with amazing story, even if they never actually saw the monsters inside the cave. It was so much that it felt a little too unrealistic, even for children. And so, they decided to investigate the cave themselves. What did their little imaginative minds think about the content of the cave? Treasures, piles and piles of treasures, obviously.

"C'mon, you go first"

"No way, you go"

"Hey don't push me!"

Even if the children thought the stories were a lie, a scary cave was still a scary cave. Years of indoctrination did that to your mind. That, or they were just kids being kids. Anyway, at a time like this, there would be that one kid who were brave enough to go inside, even if it means going alone.

"Alright, I'll go!"

"Hey Alice, are you sure?"

The girl, Alice, despite what she just said, was visibly shaking from terror. This 10 year old, long-haired blonde girl was actually a meek girl.

"My brother asked me to find out what's inside the cave and told him later. I must go!"

Her big brother, Kurt, was lying on the bed at home. A bad cold struck him a couple of night before, and he still had bad fever. As the children had planned the... 'investigation' a few days before, Kurt asked Alice to find out what's inside the cave and then told him later when she got back.

The other children looked at each other. Kurt was the one that gave the idea to go inside the cave. They were excited of going, since Kurt was a brave and dependable boy. But now that he wasn't there, their feet were nailed to the ground, refusing to take any step further into the cave, even as Alice slowly walked forward. Soon after, Alice disappeared from their view, swallowed by the darkness. The children panicked, but soon came into an agreement. They would wait right there, in the mouth of the cave. If after a long time Alice still hadn't come back, they would run to the village and told the adults. Though, they should have told their parents right away.

A few tens of steps later, Alice was completely alone in the dark. None of the children were reasonable enough to bring some kind of a light source. They were still small children, after all. At first, Alice couldn't see anything, but then her eyes adjusted to the dark. She started to see the outlines of the cave's wall. The cave itself wasn't very wide, it could fit about 10 people from one of the wall to the other. As for the depth, though, only the soldiers and adventurers that cleared the cave who knew. However, depth was not the only thing that made cave clearing difficult.

Several minutes of slow and careful walking later, Alice arrived in a junction. This junction had 7 different paths in the form of tunnels, including the one towards the entrance. There were marks on the side of each entrance. Those were marks left by the adventurers that cleared the cave a century ago. All of the marks were an X surrounded by a circle. Those marks were universal marks that was still used until today by adventurers. An adventurer or a group of them would put an X on the side of the entrance before entering an unexplored cave. If they managed to return to the entrance after clearing the cave, they would put a circle around the X mark they left before. If they returned without clearing the cave, they would put a dash on the X, changing it into an asterisk. If they didn't managed to return, well, no one could add anything. It worked as a danger sign for future adventurers, with an X and circle being the safest, followed by asterisk and circle, an asterisk, and lastly X and no sign as the most dangerous. Obviously, future adventurers could only add a dash to X if there were no circle, and can only add circle if they managed to clear the cave to avoid confusion.

Alice saw these marks, but had no idea what they meant. When she was looking around, she saw a small tunnel, that could fit her only if she crawled on the cold ground. It was too small for adults to crawl into. Unsurprisingly, there were no mark on this tunnel. The adventurers skipped this one, both because it was too small for them to venture into and because they thought there were no monster that could reside there. The absence of marks around that small hole made Alice curious, so she started lowering herself to the ground and peered inside. She could see nothing, only pitch black. She hesitated, but mustering her courage, she started crawling inside. The tunnel was narrow, but Alice could slowly move forward without scrapping the sides and the top. The air was damp and stagnant, making Alice had trouble breathing. Yet, she pushed onward. After a minute of crawling, she seemed to arrived at a small dome, a dead end. But a few seconds later Alice realized that it was not a dome as there was a way up. In fact, it looked like an exit. She slowly tried to stand up.

Alice now found herself inside of a hole which ledges only as tall as her. Reaching towards the ledge with her hands, she tried to climb up. However, the sides of the hole was slippery, and her shoes couldn't find a good grip and she kept slipping. So, Alice took of her shoes, threw it up out of the hole, and tried again bare-footed. She managed to get a good grip on the cold stones and tried hard to lift herself up, finally managed to get out of the hole.

The first thing Alice tried to do after getting out was to find her shoes. But after she found it and put it on, she saw something in front of her. It was a slime which was more than twice the size of her body. Alice froze, it took several seconds for her to acknowledge the thing in front of her. It was all the time the slime needed to pull her inside its huge gelatinous body. Alice started screaming as her body was pressed against the slime's soft body. She started to struggle, but the slime held her close. Due to the struggle, Alice's face was pressed against the slime which made her started to suffocate. Alice started to get tired from trashing around with no result and, combined with lack of air, started to go limp. But before Alice passed out from lack of oxygen, the slime managed to swallowed Alice's head. Its inside was more watery than the outer layer. Alice, gasping for air, swallowed it. It tasted funny, a combination of sweet and salty with a tinge of sour. The slime liquid entered both her lungs and stomach. Alice was still choking for a while, but then the liquid seemed to adapting to her lungs and she could breathe. How the liquid enabled her to breath was beyond anyone, especially Alice who was completely bewildered by it. Meanwhile, the slime didn't stop until finally it finished swallowing Alice whole. The inside of the slime was warm and comfortable. It somehow made Alice felt drowsy. No matter how hard Alice tried to stay awake to try and get out, she eventually fell asleep.

The hole Alice entered was actually the nest of a group of intelligent slimes. They were special slimes that has higher INT than ordinary slimes, capable of casting low level magic. Due to their high intelligence, they realized they were in danger during the cave clearing one hundred years ago. They decided to hole up inside their nest, which the adventurers couldn't traverse into. However, the adventurers kept coming to the cave months after they started to hide. Slimes do not need much nutrients to survive in the first place, but they still need to consume something by dissolving it into their bodies. The adventurers made them unable to exit their nest, and anything that the slimes could consume in their nest already ran out. In that desperate situation where their whole group was going to die, they slimes decided on something drastic. The weaker slimes willingly offered themselves to their fellow to be consumed. This cannibalistic event kept going until there was only one slime left. This slime evolved from the experience gathered from all of the cannibal devouring. This new slime didn't need to consume thing to survive, so it was one problem solved. The slime also became stronger and gained several new skills, and it would have no problem facing several average adventurers at once. However, its new form was more solid on the outer side and a lot bigger than its previous one. It wasn't able to crawl out through the narrow tunnel, essentially became stuck. Since then, it has been staying there in that nest alone for a century. Midway through the loneliness, it unconsciously developed a new skill, but had no means of using it. With nothing to do, it went to deep slumber.

When the slime felt the shoes Alice threw hitting its body, it woke up. Searching for the source of disturbance after long uneventful sleep, it found a small human girl standing inside its nest. It was so happy to see another creature after so long that it immediately wanted to get in contact with her. Thus, it pulled Alice towards its body. Of course, this triggers its devouring mechanism which started to swallow Alice. But it didn't care and just wanted to keep 'hugging' her. When it finally swallowed Alice, it originally wanted to spit her out, but suddenly it remembered the newest skill it gained. The slime decided to use it.

The slime slowly started to ingest the little girl inside of it. Alice was in deep sleep, unaware of her fate. The liquid she swallowed ensure this. In a way, it was fortunate for her, as she wouldn't feel any pain during her absorption. It didn't take a lot of time for the slime to completely devour her. The slime's size barely changes, probably only gained as much as half the size of Alice, but it had received a lot of new information. Making use of its skill, it split itself into two, one of them was smaller than the other. The smaller one then started to stir, uncertain at first, but it soon morphed itself into a humanoid figure. As time passes, it became more and more human like than before. It changed its color into creamy white, and its body composition changed from rather gooey into solid form. It transformed a part of it into hair, and worked on small details. In less than three minutes, the girl who was supposed to be completely devoured by the slime reappeared. But, it was not Alice. It was part of the slime, a product of its [Duplication] skill.

By devouring something, the slime could analyze its shape and composition. If it was a living thing, the slime could also absorb its memories. In other words, knowledge and personality. Then the slime would be able to duplicate the thing it absorbed. The result would be 98% similar with the original, unless it was something that was made out of legendary materials. But it was not a problem for the slime to duplicate a little human girl. The humanoid slime, sitting down on the ground, had the appearance and memories of Alice. It had different consciousness with the other slime, as the slime actually split into two different entities. But there was still a mental link between the two. Even without spoken words, they would vaguely know what each other wanted.

The cloth-less girl examined herself. She remembered about having a human body, but in actuality she had just had it a moment ago, so everything felt weird. She touched and caressed herself all over, even inserted a finger into her lower holes. The girl whimpered from the feedback, the slime did a good job duplicating Alice's senses. All of the old and new sensations overloaded the girl's senses, making her unable to think straight. Fortunately her slime counterpart gave her mental knock to straighten her up, and the girl immediately stopped fingering herself. After trying to calm herself, her heavy breathing slowly became normal. And then, for the first time, the girl tried to use her voice.

"I am... Alice"

It was an exact replica of Alice's voice. The girl then tried various expressions. Happy, sad, angry, et cetera. The girl was able to pull it off smoothly. Then, she tried to stand up. Her legs felt weak at first, and balancing herself on two feet was difficult, but then her wobbly legs grew steady. She tried to walk, then a little jog. She did some stretching and tried several poses. It was perfect, not even Alice's parents and his brother would find anything different at first glance. The rest depended on her act, but since the girl had Alice's memories, it would be easy.

For the first time after her birth, the slime girl Alice took real notice of the slime. The skill [Duplication] was born from its loneliness, as it want more companion. Unfortunately, it couldn't duplicate itself. Alice coming inside the cave was like a gift from a higher being. Alice approached the slime and hugged it. It felt warm and squishy to her. The slime, on the other hand, felt happy for the act of affection, that it learned from Alice's memories. They were separated enough entity which made this work. The slime was happy, but it wasn't satisfied yet. It wanted more companion. Fortunately, it can be arranged since there was a village nearby.

Meanwhile, only after that hug, that Alice realized that she couldn't return to the village naked. The slime then spit out two small parts of itself. They clung on Alice's bodies, merged with her and slowly morphed into her clothes and shoes. These slime parts didn't have their own consciousness since they duplicate non-living things. Alice would be able to command them as she pleased. Then, they were ready to go. The slime was now small enough to squeeze itself through the hole, so it followed Alice until they were at the other exit of the small tunnel.

The slime watched from the dark cave as Alice approached the children. It looked like none of them had run back to tell the adults yet, which was convenient for Alice and the slime. Obviously the children got a lot of questions for Alice. Alice just told them she couldn't find anything in the cave because it was too dark. She suggested that they come back another day with a light source. The kids looked disappointed, but looked forward to their future exploration, with some of their fear towards the cave gone. Alice looked back towards the cave, at the slime. It knew it would have to wait there, so it did. With a final glance, Alice left with the other children, back to the village.

"How was it Alice? Did you find anything?"

Despite his fever, Kurt was really excited when his sister came back. Alice gave him a signal to lower his voice. After all, their parents were inside the house. Kurt immediately understood and kept silent. Smiling, Alice whispered to her brother.

"Yes, I found something but I can't take it back. Also, I didn't tell the others because I want you to see it first. I'm very sure you will like it. Let's go there tomorrow, just the two of us... Brother"