Min's head poked out from the inside of a dinky alleyway. She looked left and right. "Coast is clear, go!" Her bare feet stepped into the dirt road. She held two branches, one against her front and one on her back.
Scant leaves offered some cover to her body, but not much. Did they hide her pink nipples? Her slender backside? Probably not, but Min didn't dare to look down and break the illusion that she was somewhat decent.
"Operation: Clothes heist" had been a mortifying bust. Min was still on square one of her brand new life without even a handkerchief to her name.
At least she convinced the scary innkeeper to provide her with warm meals and a place to sleep. Min would like to say that the woman had a heart of gold deep down, but no. The meals were leftovers, and her bed (or rather, hay pile) was inside the goat's barn. She was the worst.
Talk about a disastrous start to her new life. Maybe it was karma? Legendary heroines weren't supposed to steal, after all. She ought to be righting wrongs, doing quests, and saving the day!
Despite the butterflies protesting in her stomach, Min decided to head to town and search for her first real quest, an adventurer's guild, or anyone with the basic decency to help a poor naked gal down in her luck.
"Ahh! Stay away, brute!"
Min craned her neck towards the source of the scream down the street. A couple of armed thugs were surrounding a woman. One of the brutes was thin and spindly, while the other was short and round like a barrel.
The woman had tried to run away but collided head-on with a stone wall. The hood she wore occluded not only her face but her peripheral vision as well. She was tall, with long chestnut hair flowing around her shoulders. A belt filled with colorful vials tied her robe together.
"No more games, alchemist. Tell us where your stash is!" the short man yelled, pointing the sharp end of his spear toward the woman's face.
"I-I don't know what you are talking about!"
Oh no, the woman was getting robbed! Min had to help her, but how? Even back on Earth, she couldn't beat a bunny, let alone two armed robbers!
But she wasn't on Earth, was she? Min got reincarnated as an adventurer! She probably had hidden magic abilities and OP skills that would manifest as soon as she found herself in a proper scuffle. At least, that's how it usually happened in the stories she read.
With no plan in her head but a heart filled with unearned confidence, Min sprinted at full speed toward the thugs. Her first attack had to be devastating, but she didn't know any martial arts, so Min settled for the first thing that popped into her mind. She coiled her leg back and then released her foot forward as hard as her muscles allowed her to.
"Stop right there, scum! Flying kick!"
Min's feet connected with the back of the spindly thug. He didn't even flinch. It was as if she had kicked a wall of meat. He turned around and scoffed at her.
"Go away, beggar. I don't have any coins."
"I don't think she wants your money, man. She just tried to kick you," the shorter thug said.
"She did? ...You did? Was that a kick?"
"Errr…Maybe? Did it hurt?"
"Not at all."
Ok, so Min probably didn't have super strength. "Then no, I was just, err, stretching my legs!"
Min raised her other feet with an uneasy smile and touched the tip of her toes to make it seem like she was actually stretching. While doing so, she pressed one of her branches between her legs and into her crotch. The coarse wood felt rough pressed against her womanhood, but it sure was better than flashing her unmentionables to the thugs.
"I sure hope that was just a stretch. My kid kicks more strongly, and he isn't even born yet!"
"Thuggie Junior is kicking already? Good for you, bud!"
"Oh, haven't I told you? He kicks like a professional courier. Last night he even woke up the missus when…"
While the tall man gushed about his baby's development to his buddy and a somewhat confused Min, the other woman took her opportunity to try to tiptoe away from the street.
"Hold on!" The spindly man noticed the alchemist's retreat and promptly grabbed her arm. "This minx tried to distract us with a naked woman! The beggar's in cahoots with her!"
"I'm not a beggar! Wait, cahoots?-ow!" The thug grabbed Min's wrist and tossed her against the alchemist. The ruffians kept the two women almost pressed together at spearpoint, forcing them to hold their hands up. Min cursed as her precious branches fell to her feet. Naked in public once again…
"Last chance. Where is your stash?" The tip of the thug's spear pressed the two women even further together. It didn't hurt, but it made the situation all the more awkward, at least for the naked Min.
Her face was so close to the "alchemist" that she could feel her breathing on her cheeks. The soft linen of her robe brushed against Min's pink nipples.
"I'll show you my stash…" the woman replied through gritted teeth. Min noticed that her hand was slowly drifting downward toward the colorful vials hanging from her belt. Were those potions? She really was an alchemist!
"Yes, that's what we want to know. Where is it?" The thug's spear got in between the woman's hand and her belt, forcing the alchemist to raise her arms begrudgingly.
"Don't worry, I got you!" Min cheerfully said, trying to snatch the vials. In her split-second sleight of hand, she didn't have the time to see what exactly she was nabbing. Min grabbed what she could and yanked back.
Min somehow missed all the vials and grabbed the rope tying them together, which came loose with her pull. All of the woman's potions fell to the floor, their lids falling apart. The liquids combined in the ground and began emanating rainbow smoke.
The thugs took a couple of shaky steps back. The alchemist gasped. Min beamed a goofy smile, unsure if she was supposed to be proud of the mess she caused.
"We should run- Ah!" With a loud bang, a green jelly-like substance rose from the liquid, enveloping Min and the alchemist as it expanded.
"What the-?" The transparent jelly had already surrounded Min's legs, encroaching on her naked waist. "Why does it smell like lemon? What is this? Eww…"
The slime kept expanding like a soufflé rising in the oven. Only Min's head remained above the substance. Thankfully, it stopped growing when it reached her neck. The alchemist couldn't get away in time either. Her body was also submerged in the jelly, her neck and head poking out of the surface.
"We aren't paid enough to deal with that! Let's get out of here." The armed men turned tail and ran away from the blob just as curious villagers approached to see what was going on.
"You had to drop my potions, didn't- why are you smiling?"
"Hehe. It's like I'm in a giant jelly. This is kind of fun… Maybe we can eat our way out? Agh! It's like biting on a lemon!"
"It's a slime, you dimwit. Of all the people to come to my rescue, I get the naked idiot."
"It's not that bad. At least no one can tell I'm naked anymore!"
"Look down."
"Meep!" The jelly was a lot more transparent than Min thought. She could see her pretty nipples saluting back at her with almost complete clarity. Great. Once more, she was flashing her tits in public… but she wasn't the only one?
Taking a good look at her companion, Min noticed something interesting. Her clothes were dissolving, almost as if the jelly was acid. Thankfully, it did nothing to her flesh but slightly tickle her skin.
Only bare threads remained of the alchemist's robe. They stubbornly clung to her soft thighs, one wrapped around her slim tummy. Without the rest of the garment to support it, her hood fell back into the slime.
Whatever type of underwear the woman used to have was also gone. Her breasts were floating in the jelly, and only a small square of rapidly melting white fabric stood in front of the wild chestnut bush down in her crotch.
Without the robe in the way, Min could see more of the alchemist. Her face was sharp, her nose small, and her eyes grey. Her chest was quite …bountiful, at least compared to Min's.
Min tried to trash her legs and move her arms, but it was as if she got buried in lemon-scented sand. About all she could manage was wiggling her fingers and toes.
"O-ok, this is pretty bad. But the town's watch is bound to come and help us, right?"
"How are you this stupid? Those two guys ARE the town's watch. I don't think anyone is coming to help us. We'll be stuck here until the mix evaporates under the sun."
"What? No, they can't be. He called his son Thuggie Junior! You expect me to believe that man is a well-adjusted member of society?"
"Well, he is part of the guard, so no. Also, people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, miss naked adventurer."
Glass houses? Was that an expression from this world, or did whatever was translating the local language in her head also translate the idiom into something Min would understand?
It didn't matter. The alchemist seemed to be telling the truth... wait, an Alchemist? Fighting the Town´s Watch? All the pieces fell into place.
"That's why they wanted to know where your stash is! Are you a criminal? Do you sell drugs? Is that why you became an alchemist? You know, my grandma got addicted to her sleeping-"
"Can we suffer in silence? Please?"
"Sorry, It's just… I tend to talk when I'm nervous and I'm kind of nervous, you know? Trapped in a giant slime? Naked? It's quite embarrassing, to be honest. You know what I'm talking about, you are blushing hotter than I am!"
"Urgh..." the alchemist groaned in pain.
" …Ok, I know that look. That's the "Min, shut the hell up" look. Lips sealed."
Since her partner wasn't cooperative, Min looked around. This was a mistake. Her heart drummed as she saw that the crowd had gotten bigger. Some curious townspeople even approached the slime to poke it with sticks.
Great… she had become the town's newest attraction. "H-how much longer do we have to stay here anyway? U-until this thing evaporates?"
The alchemist looked at Min, then at the sun above her. She sighed once more, much more heavily this time. "You don't want to know…"