Connor's guard was at its peak, especially since he was back in the wild, making his way towards the cave.
"Will I find one there?" He muttered to himself, the same nightmarish creature appearing in his mind. He jumped on top of a tree stump, trying to avoid the gooey substances on the ground. He shuddered the moment he saw it a few meters back but he still continued forward.
"This better not be what I think it is!" The goo was black-ish, might even be slightly transparent if not for the sheer quantity. Connor had been jumping from one place to another, avoiding even the smallest contact with it.
The sky was orange, radiating a holy atmosphere, if not for the goo Connor would have enjoyed the quietness along with the view.
*Wosh*
With his 5 Stars in Strength and Dexterity, Although being a lot less than his 10 Star Spirit, Connor's physique could easily beat any superhuman. He hung onto trees, rocks and the mountain walls as he jumped from one spot to another, his eyes scanning the area around him ready for any kind of attack. His perception was extraordinary, due to his high Spirit Stat, he could easily notice even the smallest of movements, and a few feet ahead of him he noticed the gooey substance move, as if disturbed by something from behind a boulder.
"What's back there? Something hiding? An ambush?" Connor thought but quickly pushed it to the side. How would monsters know he was coming and have enough time to prepare an ambush? It didn't make sense, but an answer quickly appeared from behind the boulder as a ghost-like face emerged from the darkness, covered in the gooey dark substance. Connor's eye opened wide as he watched the blob-like creature slither around the area, grabbing rocks and branches with its two nubs and shoveling it into its hollowed mouth.
"Is that a… Slime?" Connor questioned himself, watching the creature go about its business. "Shouldn't they be blue in color? With cute faces and squishy bodies? Why does that thing look like a living snot?" Connor shuddered as he saw the abomination try to bite a branch but ended up cutting off its own hand, feeling no pain as it continued eating, soon after the missing part started to regenerate.
Connor expected as much, seeing monsters regenerate as if it was nothing did not surprise him, especially with these types of creatures, since he already had a run in with a humanoid creature made out of mud back at the Don's camp, which he nearly died to if he didn't manage to destroy its core in time.
"Maybe I should leave it alone!" Connor nodded and was about to continue moving when he stopped himself, looking around him in worry. "All of this gooey substance came from that thing?" He looked at the creature and noticed that the more it ate the thicker the goo around it became. "Is it alone?" He wondered. "And does it regenerate with the goo? Can it control it? If I step into it will it sense me? Is it still connected to it somehow?" Connor's questions, as usual, were plenty. He stood there for a bit before starting to head back. "Joshua said something about Gnomes or Goblins, but nothing about Slimes.. I would rather not risk it, especially since this whole area is covered with the goo means it has either been here a long time or it is not alone, either way, whatever is in the Cave they directed me to is the least of our problems now!"
***
Back at the farm, Connor went straight to Joshua, in which upon seeing Connor back already stood up with a smile and spoke. "I didn't think you were this strong, are they all dead?"
Connor shook his head. "I didn't even get to the cave, Joshua" He said before starting to explain everything he saw, watching Joshua and the few Novices that were around facial expressions change from happiness to confusion to worry and lastly to shock and fear.
"Those damn vermons!" Joshua's spat in anger. "What brought those abominations to this area? I thought the Town Guards were clearing their nests consistently around here!"
Seeing Joshua's complete change in mood prompted Connor to ask him about those things and what he heard made him shudder.
"We call those things Abominations, because they're existence in and of itself goes against everything" Joshua continued. "They eat everything and anything, they are cursed creatures with endless hunger. What you saw there… the goo that you spoke of, is not some substance that they produce" Joshua sighed. "It's that thing's body" Connor thought back to the area when he first saw the goo. He thought it was the remains of some creatures or the spit of some boss monsters passing by even but he would have never thought that the goo that went on and on for meters belonged to one creature, maybe even more that he hadn't seen yet.
"What do we do now?" Connor asked.
"We can't let that thing grow, and backup from the Monastery or even from Harbor Town would take too long, and by the time they arrive with the needs to deal with this it will be too late" Joshua grabbed a few scrolls from his robe as he browsed through them while speaking. "I'm going to kill those damn lazy Guards!" He muttered, shoving a bundle of Scrolls into Connor's hands. "This is a cleansing spell, it'll be able to harm it and if we're lucky enough, scare it away!"
Connor grabbed the Scrolls and looked at them with interest. "What spell is this?" He asked.
"Archil's Purification Spell" Joshua answered as he started commanding the Novices around. He had two of them start packing their things and preparing for an emergency retreat, another one ran into the house and later came back with another bundle of Scrolls while the last 3 were putting on armor.
'Archil?' The name sounded familiar to Connor, from back when he was on board the Inquisitions ship. Although curious, he held back from asking anything for now since everyone seemed panicked and focused on the main issue. "Do we use these Spells on any part of its body or specifically on the main one?" He asked.
"This will vaporize a large junk of the exterior body but for it to have the most effect it needs to be cast on the main body, which we might not be able to reach according to you" Joshua answered.
"I found the body, remember? I'll just go back the same way"
"No, you will not find it in the same spot, not even in the same zone, it can move inside itself quickly, going from one spot to another in seconds.. I heard a Mage once say that they have some skeleton structure on the inside that bends as if it was rubber, hard enough to protect its heart though" Joshua finished speaking and finally looked at Connor in the eyes. "We'll just be pushing its exterior back until backup arrives, don't think about going to find it since the moment we start attacking it'll feel pain and go into a rampage, going after anything that moves!"
"Is it strong?" Connor asked.
"Only one word my friend.. Tentacles!"