I cursed as the barrage of acid sprayed around the edges of my shield, small bits of the spray corroding at the skin on my legs. Fuck, I wasn't able to block it all. I quickly retreated around the corner of the doorframe, downing a small healing potion before attempting to reconsider my strategy.
Even for the great chosen hero of the human kingdom, the last bastion of hope against the impending tyrannical rule of the demon king, a witch of this caliber was no easy fight. These witches were greatly feared across many races, not just the humans, for their seemingly sadistic enjoyment of magical experimentation. The last time I had fought a witch this close to the demon king's castle, the twelve humans in her dungeon had already perished when I finally defeated her. I shuddered at the memory of their disfigured, scarred bodies.
I would not let it happen again. Could not. I held up my sword, staring at my reflection, the beads of sweat dripping down my dirt-smeared face. I grimaced as I wiped the acid from its edge. At least the magic that kept my sword in perfect condition, a gift from the queen herself for my journey, was still holding up.
I took a deep breath, glancing once around the edge of the doorframe only to barely dodge back as another bottle of who knows what magical effect went whirling past my cheek. Normally it would take a small brigade of soldiers to raid a witch's dungeon like this. But this was my third one today. The trick was to get in close, something that was almost impossible with a large number of party members, which is why I took adventures like this alone. Not to mention that anyone else would just get in my way.
As the chosen hero, I was born with the amazing ability to level at ten times the standard rate, greatly increasing my speed, strength, reaction, and stamina over that of a normal human. But all of the combat skills I had gained were my own. I checked my level as I uncorked another health potion, holding the lip of the vial between my teeth. 542. The witch's had been somewhere around 350-400, judging on how fast she was able to throw that bottle at me. And given the size of the room at about 20 feet... I nodded to myself, half stepping into the doorway before turning back immediately, watching as the bottle careens into the hall once more, this time exploding with hellflame against the stone wall.
But I didn't stop to stare, immediately committing into the room at a full sprint. I blocked the next attack with my shield, before swinging it towards my feet and rolling over it. I was so close. Halfway across the room. But the next bottle was faster than I expected, splashing acid across my body. I howled in pain as it ate away at my armor and leather gear, but managed to down the potion of healing I had held in my mouth just in case, healing my wounds just enough for me to be able to lift my sword- and lop her head off in one clean cut.
I breathed a heavy sigh of relief, downing another potion to fix up what the first one couldn't. I bit my lip as I pushed myself to my feet. If only it could take away all the pain and fatigue too. But I didn't have time to worry about that. I had to find out if there were any experimentations going on. I shuddered at the thought of finding more humans like I had before. I wondered now if it was better if they were dead, that if there were more down here, if I should put them out of their misery.
I shook the thought out of my head, trudging past the witch's corpse collapsed on the floor as I headed down the dark stone staircase behind her. Luckily, the entire way had been illuminated by the same hellflame she had tried to kill me with earlier, so I was able to keep both my shield and sword up as I walked down the narrow steps. Finally, the stairs opened up the larger dungeon below, the sound of bubbling cauldrons all but drowning out the small cry that I heard.
"Help... help me..." I immediately rushed towards the sound, cutting off the lock on the cell door it was echoing from. But there was no one there.
"Help... oh thank the gods.. thank you..." The voice was practically sobbing, and only then did I realize where it was coming from. Down below my feet was a small slime, barely a foot tall, the small slits on its otherwise ovular body were leaking with tears. I set down my sword and shield against the edge of the cell door, gently bending over to pick it up. I looked at it closer, trying to see if there were any obvious effects from whatever the witch had done to it. But all I could see was the slightly translucent white orb, the source of its life force, inside of it.
Slimes were interesting creatures. They were monsters, their kings and queens allied with the demon lord, but the majority of them were harmless. Even the higher level ones that one could encounter around the human kingdom were rarely above level 5, and were easily killed by just crushing the life orb inside of them.
So what was a witch doing with this one? It wasn't high level, as that was easy to ascertain by their size. The great slime king, who was over level 2000, was about the size of a small house, his massive body making it almost impossible to reach his life orb without being entirely consumed. But this one was barely larger than my head, it couldn't have been more than level 2 or 3.
Still, it was weird to hear one speak. It was known they could speak the common tongue, but I had never heard one do so before. At the very least I could ascertain some information from her, even though it did seem a bit cruel after all she had been through. I decided it was worth a shot, to at least attempt to learn what the witch had been experimenting with. It could be invaluable research. So I sat down, holding the slime gently in my lap, doing my best to maintain eye contact with it as I began to slowly pet its head, attempting to soothe the small monster enough that we could talk.
