This slime moved quicker than the first. Before she could react, it dribbled down her head, covering her face and hair, and reached down to her shoulders. It wriggled into her ears, her nose, and covered her forehead and cheeks like the world’s grossest facial mask. But could it suck out blemishes?

Asa didn’t move. She wasn’t sure if she could just stab the slime without stabbing herself in the face, and she didn’t want to lose another heart by doing something so dumb.

Asa…the voice was still present inside her head. It was louder now with the Slime trying to smother her. When it pushed between her lips and into her mouth, she knew she had to act. Her lungs were panicking, and if this thing went down her throat instead of air, she’d choke to death and end up another skeleton on the floor.

She held the bone with both hands, staring at the point as she drove the tip into the slime slowly. The slime had an exterior layer of skin, but it wasn’t very thick. The bone slid in with ease. The slime shuddered before slowly dripping off her face and splattering onto the tiles. Asa kneeled over, hands on her knees, as she coughed up the rest of the creature. She gasped for air as the slime disappeared, thankful that it had no taste.

In a moment, all that remained were two little blobs with the blue screens letting her know she could pick them up.

There wasn’t a moment to catch her breath. Several more slimes surrounded her, little screens flashing briefly above them as they jiggled toward her.

When one of them pounced, she slashed it in the air, and it burst open with a pop before splattering her with its gooey contents. She clenched her teeth and kept turning, moving lightly on her feet as she waited for another attack. One managed to jump onto her belly, but she sliced it in half and turned to the next one

After a while, she’d lost track. Countless blobs littered the floor, and a few slimes wriggled between the drops. She counted three remaining. One leaped towards her, and she plunged the bone into its soft body. But this time, the bone shattered along with the slime.

“What the?” But before Asa could finish swearing, another slime shot up from the floor and latched itself to her face. It pushed into her nose and into her mouth and down her throat, choking her. Gagging, she kicked the remaining one wriggling around her feet, but that only trapped her leg and she fell backward.

The slime on her face oozed inside her, and it took all her willpower to keep from trying to grab it and try wrenching it off. She could see through its clear body that the other slime was climbing between her thighs. Her lungs spasmed, and there was another pang on her wrist. Asa was down to her last heart.

She rolled over, trying to scream, trying to throw up the slime, and reached for the skeleton again. She snapped off another bone from its rib cage then lashed at the slimes until they shuddered, spilled out of her, and disappeared. She sneezed before coughing and clutching her tummy and sinking to the floor. She knew one thing for sure: she would never eat Jell-O pudding again.

Asa stayed on her back, trying to catch her breath. There was a sea of clear-slime jelly around her, but no more slimes. She was drenched in sweat from the fight, and she felt like she’d just gotten over a savage stomach bug.

Exhausted as she was, she realized that the green stamina bar never appeared during her fight. It seemed that health and stamina were represented separately. She rubbed her last remaining heart, her wrist aching with every heartbeat to remind her of her condition.

What happened if she died? Flashes of lying in a hospital bed, staring at vials of blood and chemicals, loved ones sobbing around her. She remembered writing I don’t want to die in her diary, the words sloppy, her arms fragile. But now her muscles seemed restored. Her arms felt strong. So maybe she already died, and this was some afterlife. An afterlife that functioned like a video game.

With a shudder, Asa sat up and looked at the blobs left behind by the slime. Monsters had drops in this world, things to collect. She tried not to imagine what other creatures might be lying in wait for her as she knelt on the floor and held a jelly. The blue screen flickered over it with its name.

These can be administered to heal minor injuries. Restores one heart. It can also be applied as a lubricant and used to thicken soups.

“Can it heal me?” she asked the screen. In the flickering torchlight, she studied the jelly’s clear globular form. It felt like a miniature version of the living thing, a living sack. What was she supposed to do with them? She gave it a lick and checked her wrist. But her hearts stayed the same.

This time she bit into it like an apple. The blob burst, spraying her face and chest with its contents. She sat motionless as dripped down her belly and onto her lap. For a panic-stricken moment, she thought it had come alive and attacked her, but then it started to warm up. It felt good, like heat therapy.

Her aches faded away, and as the liquid evaporated off her, Asa realized a heart had returned on her wrist. She quickly grabbed another and held it in a trembling hand for a moment, remembering that it could also be applied as a lubricant.

That made her blush, but she pressed the blob against her belly till it gushed. Its contents slid down between her legs, and she shut her eyes as she lathered it all over, remembering how the slimes had felt when they’d wriggled inside her. She thought about the man in her memories, the one who made her feel so hot. Rubbing the jelly against her made wet, sloppy sounds, and she let the warmth take over and spread through her body until a tingling sensation on her wrist let her know she was back to full health.

Gasping as it evaporated, she couldn’t help but smile a bit. Whatever nightmare this world was, at least there was some pleasure.

Asa turned to the skeleton. It didn’t seem so scary now, but as much as she didn’t want to touch it again, she knew she’d need more bones. She knelt over it and snapped off another rib. It changed in her hands to form the short bone weapon she’d grown familiar with. Memories of sitting in a class memorizing every bone of the human body surfaced, but that only made her feel guiltier. She’d failed that class.

But the fact that she couldn’t name the bones she stole didn’t matter. Regardless of what she broke off, they transformed into the weapon. That must be a rule of the game. The bones were just drops, even if they came off a person. When she touched a longer bone from one of the legs, it formed a different shape.

BONE CLUB. 10 DMG

It felt heavier than the short bone but did twice as much damage. It was blunt, so she imagined swinging it like baseball if she needed to hit something.

With an armful of bone weapons, she turned to the slime jelly. She should get a few of these too, but how was she supposed to carry everything? As if reading her mind, another screen opened. This one was orange and had several boxes with little words over them.

ITEMS | WEAPONS | EQUIPS | KEY ITEMS

“Oh,” she said, staring at the rippling screen. Of course. If this was a game, there would be an inventory. But how would she put the stuff inside?

She held the bone club and pressed it to the screen. It slid in with ease, light crackling around it, and she saw a little icon appear for it under the weapons heading.

“Perfect,” she said. She picked up as many of the blobs as she could, adoring their warmth against her skin. The inventory screen followed her around, so she placed as many short bones as she could gather. Asa felt bad about the skeleton, as all that remained was the skull and a few small pieces. She picked up the head and slid it into her inventory as well. She would give it a proper burial as thanks.

She paused after flicking the screen away thinking she should keep one weapon on hand. It materialized on her palm as soon as she thought about drawing a short bone. “That’s convenient,” she said, closing her fingers around the weapon.

MESSAGE: Would you like the items you pick up to instantly go into inventory?

“Yes, please,” she said. The screen seemed satisfied as it sparkled out of existence, leaving Asa annoyed that it hadn’t asked sooner.

She licked her lips and looked around the room again. The sarcophagus. The torches on the wall. The statue. She took a deep breath. The voice that had been whispering to her had finally quieted down, and now she was armed, knew how to heal, and could store items. She only wished she had clothes.

With newfound confidence, Asa bowed to the statue and exited the chamber to find herself in a corridor. Torches lit themselves as soon as she stepped out, and a stone slab shut loudly behind her. There would be no turning back.

The corridor was built from the same black stone as the chamber. Asa wondered about the size of this place. Was it one big temple thing? Was it underground? There was no sunlight or anything, just torches and darkness. At the end of the corridor was a wall, or so she thought. More torchlights flared as she approached it, revealing that it went upwards, like steps made for a giant.

On her right side, she found a wooden chest, and she knelt to study its wooden frame. It looked like something she might find in an old attic, or something pirates would use to bury treasure. She undid the latch and pulled it open to find a wrinkled brown shirt.

WORN SHIRT +2 Armor

It smelled like rotten wood, but at least it was something. She slipped the cloth over her head, the brown shirt a bit too large for her. It came down to her thighs, and she felt like a potato sack. The sleeves were ragged and torn, hanging around her elbows. The collar itself was large, just barely covering her shoulders and her breasts. But it wasn’t like she had much choice in wardrobe.

Asa tied the loose cloth around her waist to keep the shirt snug against her, wishing she had something to cover the lower half of her body. Everything below her belly was still exposed, but she’d rather the shirt didn’t get in the way if she was attacked.

But what did the +2 Armor mean? Did she have stats too? Just like weapons? A new screen appeared in front of her, flickering with the word STATS.

Name Asa Health 3/3 Stamina 10 Damage 5 Armor 2

She stared at the numbers, biting her nails. The damage stat must be determined by whatever weapon is on hand. What would happen if she put her bone away? It vanished in her hands, and she looked up to see her Damage stat change to a 2. So, her fists did that much damage then. And whatever weapon she equipped replaced the stat.

Taking a deep breath, Asa swiped on the screen and let it disappear. She wasn’t quite sure what it all meant yet, but she was happy to have some armor. She looked up at the wall that wasn’t really a wall. Would she have to climb it? There were more, leading higher and higher.

The torches behind her snuffed out, leaving nothing but darkness. She held her breath, afraid something would leap onto her from the dark. When nothing appeared, she relaxed and faced the climb ahead.

“Alright,” she said. Asa took a deep breath, then jumped. Her fingertips brushed the edge before she fell back. “Fuck.”

This time she walked back into the dark corridor, then ran towards the wall and stepped off its surface. She grabbed the edge, and the green stamina bar appeared again She placed her toes against the wall to steady herself before pulling herself upward and climbing over. Her arms burned from the exertion, but the stamina bar replenished quickly.

The next one was easier. It seemed that every time Asa exerted herself, her muscles grew stronger and more capable. She didn’t need a running start anymore and pulling herself up with her arms became a smooth movement.

Before she climbed the final wall, a memory surfaced. She remembered being out of breath walking up steps. At home, at school. After the illness hit, she remembered needing someone to hold her whenever she wanted to just go to the bathroom. That made her smile. She was growing stronger here.

When Asa made it to the top, she found herself on a platform. The steps behind her were shrouded in darkness, rendering the way back invisible. Ahead lay more platforms, each a slight distance from the next.

She would have to leap across the gap, and that made her hesitate. This wasn’t like climbing, where if she failed, she could try again. If she missed a step here, if she even landed awkwardly on an edge, she would fall. Peering into the dark abyss, she had no idea how far down it went. The endless darkness made her head spin, her palms sweaty.

There was a draft here that messed with the torch flames. Strange shadows flickered across the black walls. It tickled her skin, sending slight chills racing across her body. Asa’s nipples were hard, and the breeze felt sharp on her thighs and backside, and she rubbed her arms for warmth.

After a few deep breaths, she broke into a sprint and leaped off her platform. For a moment, the next one seemed miles away, and her heart sank when she thought she wouldn’t make it.

Then her body crashed against its side, her fingers only just having grabbed the edge, leaving her dangling over the darkness. She mouthed a silent thank you as she pulled herself up and collapsed on the platform, her hair all over her face. Her legs shook badly as she straightened up and eyed the next one. There were several more in the distance.

Her heart was racing, her body temperature was up, and adrenaline pumped through her blood. She stamped her foot, trying to stop the trembling as she tied her hair into a little bun. It wasn’t pretty, but without a band or piece of cloth, it would have to do. She focused on the fact that if there was a breeze, that meant there had to be an exit. There was some way out of this horrid dungeon.

With that in mind, she ran across this platform and kicked off. This time, she grabbed the edge with ease. Just as it had been with the stairs, her body was adapting.

“Okay,” she whispered to herself, her hands on her knees. “I can do this.”

The following ones went by quickly. Asa gave herself a moment to recover after each jump, but by the fourth one, she spent less time catching her breath. A few of them were smaller, but she found that she could jump further now even without a running start. She didn’t stop until she arrived on the second to last platform, now drenched in sweat from the running and jumping and almost dying.

The final one was much further, almost double the distance. The void expanded underneath her, and she felt dizzy staring into it. A vine hung over the center, and she realized what she had to do. It should be simple. Take a running start, leap and grab the vine, then swing to the other side.

Asa bit her bottom lip. But what if she couldn’t grab it or let go in time? What if she miscalculated and got stuck on the vine, hanging over the void until she ran out of stamina and plummeted to her death?

“I can’t think like that,” she said, shaking her arms and legs loose. The little breeze wasn’t cooling her down enough, and everything felt too hot. The worn shirt was so wet that it stuck to her skin. Asa pulled it off, and it vanished into her inventory. If she got attacked, she’d just slip the shirt on. It wasn’t like anyone was around to see her anyway.

She licked her lips, took a few steps back, and leaped off the edge with a shout. One hand closed around the thick vine. Momentum propelled her forward, and suddenly the next platform was coming up too fast.

Asa let go. She sailed through the air, cold against her hot skin, and she landed on the platform rolling, coming to a stop on her side.

“Oh, my god.” She pressed her hands to her face, relief coursing through her body, and stayed like that for a while.

When Asa stood, she spotted the top of a wooden ladder going down from this platform. There were no more places to leap to ahead, just emptiness. The torches behind her had gone out, and she tried not to imagine jumping from platform to platform in pitch blackness.

The ladder went down quite a way, but a flickering torch illuminated the bottom. This part was easy at least. She just had to be careful. One foot below the next, holding onto the rungs for dear life.

When her foot touched the black stone tiles of the floor, she hopped off to find herself in a small room. It was smaller than the chamber she’d woken inside. Asa couldn’t see an exit, but she ran over to a wooden chest that sat in the center and knelt in front of it.

“Please be a pair of pants,” she said, crossing her fingers. Even if it was all worn out and ugly like the shirt. Or even if it didn’t match. She just wanted some protection for her sensitive parts, and if it could add more armor, even better.

Asa wiped the sweat off her forehead. Then she undid the latch, pulled the chest open, and came face to face with a skull, its teeth clacking as it leaped onto her.