The Chronicles of Dwynveia - a Slimeling LitRPG

I awoke to the now-familiar apple-like taste of a health potion. Aki was holding my head up and slowly pouring it into my mouth. I didn't want to startle her, so I waited for her to finish before I let her know I was awake. When the bottle left my lips, I asked:

‘Wh-where…?’

‘When they were carrying me to the… meat room I saw where they were keeping valuable items,’ she answered with a mix of horror and pride in her voice.

I pulled myself up to a sitting position and looked around. We were in the corridor just outside the abattoir. Aki was sitting on her heels beside me. She must have dragged me over there. I noticed that she was now wearing a grey wrap cloak over her clothes and had a canvas satchel strapped across her chest. Next to her, two swords lay in brown leather scabbards, as well as six more bottles filled with the amber liquid, and three empty ones. She put the one she just poured into my mouth next to them. I realised there were no longer any wounds on the wrists. Good. I checked my damage indicator. Other than a few light pink areas I was good. Meaning most of these potions must have been given to me.

On the other side of my body there was my backpack, now badly torn and with the remnants of the trophy wall embedded into it; and next to it sword. I would need to fix up my backpack at some point. Probably in three years’ time when I was no longer in mortal danger.

‘I don’t know how to thank you,’ I said. ‘I would be dead if it wasn’t for you.’

Aki blushed.

‘It’s me who should be thanking you. You only got hurt because of me.’

‘Fair enough. Let’s call it even then, eh?’

She nodded.

‘I know you might not be the best person to ask that, but where is everyone? So far I’ve seen only three goblins and the big fuck.’

‘The men are all left raiding from what I know. The Butcher was left here to prepare a feast to celebrate their return. That’s why I was in that cage. To serve as the… th…’

Tears started gathering in her eyes and she couldn’t continue.

‘I get the picture,’ I quickly interjected. ‘Are there any other… special dinner guests we should rescue?’

Aki shook her head.

‘I was the last one. That’s why the raid was organised.’

‘I see. So they left a token defence, but could be back any moment, I imagine.’

She nodded, her face paling.

‘One last question and then we’ll get going: You said all the men were gone. What about the women?’

‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen any.’

I nodded and started getting back up.

‘Can you lead me to that valuables room?’ I asked while getting my gear ready.’I’d like to give it a once-over.’

‘I didn't see anything else interesting there.’ Aki protested.

‘Still, I’d like to take a gander. One man’s junk and all that.’

‘Jank?’

Ah. So the translator is bad with proverbs.

‘One man’s junk - well… trash is another’s treasure. It’s a saying from where I am from.’

She nodded.

‘And where is that exactly?’

‘It’s a long story. Let’s wait until we are in a safe… well a safer place.’

Truth be told, the story wasn't that long, given how I’ve only been on Dwynveia for like three hours tops, but I didn't think it was the right time to have the fascinating and ever-distracting discussion on the oh-so-fascinating subject of “I’m technically an alien”.

Aki nodded, clearly unhappy about the dodge.

We divided the remaining potions evenly between ourselves and set off in the direction I was heading in before my detour to the abattoir and headed straight on the crossroad. Aki pointed to a door maybe fifty metres to the right.

I am amazed by the sheer size of this place. I have no idea who had the idea of turning a cave complex this extensive into a dungeon, but this person should be given a medal. And then face a firing squad.

The treasury, as I began to think of the place, was maybe a three-by-four metre and very cramped room. There were rows of shelves lining all four of the walls covered in various items. In the middle of the room there stood racks with weapons of all kinds. One spot on them large enough to fit two swords was empty.

I just hope Aki knows how to fight with those.

Next to the racks, there was a massive pile of empty bags. I gave the weapons a cursory glance. I wasn’t looking to replace my bastard sword but maybe there was some sidearm I could grab. Nothing caught my fancy though, so I started to go over the contents of the shelves. A lot of that appears to be the “loot” from people who were invited to join the goblins for dinner. Most of these were simply personal effects, the last remnants of lives forever lost down the monsters’ gullets. It didn’t feel right to take any of them, but at the same time maybe if they saved the lives of Aki and me, there would be some meaning to their demise. It was always so easy in fiction. Just click loot and you don't have to worry about any moral issues. I quickly came across the spot where the girl found the potions. The impressions in the dust were unmistakable. I double-checked whether she didn't miss any and moved on. From time to time, I would see something that looked interesting, but upon checking what it was I would put it back down. After a while, I got the feeling that the goblins took most of the combat-useful stuff and just left various just-in-case knick-knacks, or perhaps something they could trade with. The only obvious things I could see were an oil lamp, matches and some spare oil I gave to Aki.

‘I have darksight, so I think you might need this more than I do,’ I told her and explained how to use them.

She nodded and began fiddling with her satchel straps to attach the lamp to them since it wouldn’t fit inside. I suggested that maybe she could try attaching one of the straps from the other bags. She walked over to the pile and started going through it.

Other than that, I was beginning to agree with Aki that this was a waste of time when I saw something I could not believe I was seeing: six foil-wrapped bars. No wonder Aki ignored them. They were so out of left field here, it would be like a cavalry lance on the streets of Washington D.C. in 2024.

I examined them.

Item: Ration Bar

Type: Food - Magical

Rarity: Coven-made - Rare

Effect: Provides enough calories to sustain a person for one day. Does not need to be consumed at once

Well… That takes care of the food situation for now.

I gave three of them to Aki. Her eyes lit up and she put them in her satchel. I unwrapped one of them and ate half of it. It tasted like a really bland muesli bar, but to me, it was the nectar of the gods. I didn’t realise how hungry I was. This new body never ate anything after all. I gave everything a quick once-over. Nothing else seemed to be of note, so I motioned to Aki that we should leave.

‘Where do we go from here?’ she asked.

I pointed to the corridor on the other side of the crossroads.

‘It should lead to a dungeon.’ I explained. ‘I’d rather not risk meeting the raiding party on our way out.’

Aki paled a little hearing this.

‘A dungeon? Why would you think that’s a good idea? And how do you know about it in the first place?’

‘I’ll explain as we go.’

Since there was no delaying it, I told her how I got to the Goblintown, as I started to call this area - it was as good a name as any. I didn’t skip any details, including me being turned in a Tenebral Slimeling. Why hide it, after all?

Aki was surprisingly understanding about it.

‘I’ve heard of people from another world coming to Dwynveia, though I assumed it was just legends,’ she explained as we passed door after door. We didn’t stop to check out any of them. After a while the corridor turned left, and I started to hear one thing I was hoping to hear - running water. We were nearing the underground river. The problem would be getting to it. The goblins would probably be able to access it since I assumed they used it as their water source. However, there was also the slight problem of me not being sure whether there would be easy access to the dungeon from it. I imagined there must have been, given the structural damage it caused. We’d cross that bridge when it came to it.

The corridor ended with a door. I could hear water clearly behind it. This was it! We were almost out!

I opened the door and saw it lead to a large square room filled with buckets and remnants of water stains. There was another exit on the other side of the chamber. However, there was another goblin for us to go through first. It looked different from the other ones, for one, instead of rags the creature wore what looked like proper greyish-white rough-sewn linen robes. The creature was probably the oldest member of the race I saw. Its face was wrinkled, it had a nasty scar running across his face and there was a long white beard growing out of his chin. Most worrying of all, the goblin was holding a twisted wooden staff that glowed slightly.

Spellcaster, I realised with some dread.

‘You go left, I go right?’ I whispered to Aki.

She nodded in agreement.

We drew our swords, but before we could charge the shaman waved his staff and five human-sized skeletons appeared in the room with us. They were unarmed, but this didn’t appear to be an issue, as their hands ended with sharp-looking bony claws.

Fuck.

I looked at Aki and ran towards the undead my weapon raised. I slashed at one of them and it simply turned into dust the moment my sword touched it.

Level 0 Summoned Skeleton has been slain

You have earned 25 experience points (825/1000 total experience points progress to level 2)

Wuh?

My hope went up that this would be an easy fight. Then a massive gust of wind hit me and blew me across the room. I landed on the floor and skidded across it.

OH, FOR FUCK’S SAKE. NOT AGAIN.

Aki couldn’t believe it when she saw Lilyth’s flight. Like her friend, Aki has never faced a spellcaster before. This would not be easy.

The skeletons were slowly approaching them. Lilyth gathered herself from the floor and said:

‘I’ll take care of the boney bastards. You deal with the beardo.’

She nodded and started running towards the goblin, weaving between the skeletons. They took a few swipes at her but missed. She lunged at the mage.

Aki’s blades stopped a few centimetres in front of the goblin. A yellow force field shimmered where her blades struck. The goblin smiled and swung his staff at her. The hardwood hit her in the stomach and knocked the wind out of her. She staggered back gasping for air.

Just as I finished another skeleton I saw Aki stagger back. The space around the goblin was shimmering yellow. I then saw air gather around the end of the shaman’s staff and another gust of wind propelled the girl across the floor. The girl wasn’t as durable as I was, so I would have to step in. Luckily, the blast of wind placed her far enough from the skeletons that I didn’t have to worry about them hurting her for now. I sighed, gripped my sword tighter and ran towards the shaman.

I led with a right-to-left slash, my blade predictability stopping at the goblin’s force field. I could see cracks appearing where I hit it.

One, maybe two more hits.

The goblin swung his staff at me, but I was ready for it and parried it. I could hear the clatter of bones behind me, so I stepped to the left, barely avoiding a swipe of a skeleton’s hand. That handled, I lunged at the goblin again. The field had definite trouble stopping a thrust from my sword, cracks spreading from the impact point. I didn’t let off the pressure and the magical barrier exploded into hundreds of shards, letting out a sound that reminded me of window shattering. The failure of the field knocked me back right in the path of a skeleton’s attack, its sharp bone claws raking across my shoulder.

I gritted my teeth through the pain and leapt towards the shaman again. It was time to finish this.

Aki’s entire body hurt. She wasn’t sure how Lilyth was able to shrug off the damage the goblin caused so easily. Maybe it was due to her being a slimeling. The sound of wood hitting metal brought Aki’s attention to the ongoing struggle. She could see Lilyth engaged in a life-or-death struggle between the shaman and two of the skeletons.

There should be more of them.

Panicked she looked around and saw the third of the skeletal monsters trying to sneak towards her from the side. She scrambled to her feet and raised her swords. Aki heard the sound of breaking glass and felt magical energy wash over her, but she kept her focus on the skeleton approaching her. She slashed at the creature with both blades, the first attack knocking aside a bony hand the skeleton was raising to attack and the second strike biting into its neck decapitating it. The creature crumbled into dust before its bones could fall to the ground. She heard another sound of wood and metal clashing. She had to help Lilyth.

The bearded fuck blocked my strike. I wanted to jump back and ready for another strike, but something crashed into me from the left and knocked me aside. I felt sharp pain spread across my belly as I was gored by one of the skeleton’s claws.

Fucking hell!

The shaman cast another gust of wind, but it only grazed me. Instead, the skeleton took the brunt of the attack, the damage sustained causing it to disintegrate. I heard the goblin let out a frustrated shout.

No such thing as friendly fire, I guess.

I regained my footing and looked towards the shaman. It was staring back at me with hate in its eyes. One of the skeletons was standing next to it, ready to defend its master. I couldn’t see the other one that should be around here somewhere.

It must have gone after Aki, I realised with a sinking feeling.

I shouldn’t have worried, however, as the blue-haired girl landed next to the guardian skeleton and ended its existence with a slash from one of her falchions. I capitalised on the opening she created for me and charged toward the shaman. The creature tried to stop me, but to no avail, as I didn’t bother with subtleties and ran it through with my sword.

Aki ended the fight with a slash of the sword that separated the goblin’s head from its shoulders.