Chapter 15: Nice to make your acquaintance! Again…

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[Seriously? Is that an anime reference or a video game reference? Ow!] - Rose

Staring at the weird, oddly familiar slime person? thing? I was distracted by the immense pain that hit me all at once. My tail felt like it was on fire again, every nerve ending screaming in pain. Waving her? hands around in a panic the slime girl? immediately rushed over to my writhing form. I noticed through a haze of pain that her lower body sort of rolled along the ground but a fresh wave of pain silenced any extra thoughts.

[Shit! Mother Fucking Damn! I thought the numbing would last longer! Your body is too damn big you know! Here I'll help you but you're too heavy for me to drag.] - Slime Girl?

[D-Drag? ....w.h.e.r.e? Ahhh!] - Rose

[My home by the lake, there's something nearby that may help! Now come on!] - Slime Girl?

Gritting my teeth, while tears ran down my face, I nodded.

[I-I'm in your care...] - Rose-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The next few hours was a haze of red-hot pain and what felt like repeated stab wounds. I vaguely know that I helped the slime girl? as she half dragged me through the forest but I'm sure I lost consciousness several times during the trip as most of it was a blur.

After that I remember some kind of run-down looking cottage and someone telling me it would be okay. For some reason her voice sounded familiar to me, someone I hadn't heard in so long but it was impossible for her to be here right now. I think I may have cried out to the voice with that name from so long ago but it couldn't have been real.

Drifting in and out of consciousness I noticed that the pain wracking my body was gradually fading. Gaining lucid thought I wondered if that meant I was dead once again. Maybe I would see that Faceless Woman again. Her face, with it's smug as shit grin flashed in front of my eyes and a wave of nausea briefly overrode the pain.

Quickly becoming fully aware I had a headache for some reason. The last few hours was all a blur and my memories from the time were like looking through old glass that was warped. Looking around I saw what looked like the inside of a partially run-down cottage that was barely keeping itself from collapsing. Another thing I noticed is that it was obviously not built for someone my size as I took up most of the room I was in and my upper body had been carefully laid down on a very sad looking bed.

[W-Where am I?] - Rose

Hearing no response I moved to sit up and a sharp pain emanated from my tail. Looking down I noticed that I still had several burn marks and quite a few missing scales, exposing raw skin? underneath. I looked quite a bit the worse for wear but unlike before the pain was manageable and other than a few burns I was mostly recovering.

Ignoring the pain that brought tears to my eyes I slowly made my way to what was left of the door leading to what I assumed was the rest of the building.

Opening the door the first thing I noticed was the distinct lack of a roof for the rest of the house, the next was that it was completely dark.

[W-What time is it?] - Rose

[Oh! You're finally awake?!? I was getting worried!] - Slime Girl?

Turning to the source of the voice I saw the slime girl? from my half remembered memories. She was currently messing with some kind of glass tubing and something really foul smelling was boiling in a pot next to her.

[Eww! What's that smell? Ssssss!] - Rose

Hissing out a breath as a wave of pain washed over my body fresh tears ran down my face from the stinging pain.

[Are you okay? Is it still hurting?] - Slime Girl?

[I-I'm fine... More importantly you saved me right? Thank you very much! Ouch!] - Rose

Thanking her? as I bowed a fresh wave of pain came all at once.

[Don't move around so much! I'm making a paste thing right now. It's supposed to be good for healing according to the books in this shack.] - Slime Girl?

[Books?] - Rose

[Yeah I found this shack about 2 years ago while I was hunting for some fish for dinner, it was abandoned but some alchemy stuff was left behind so I played around with it... Oh but the recipe I'm using now is from the book so don't worry.] - Alchemist Slime Girl?

[I see...] - Rose

Nodding my head but still nervous about the unexpected situation I watched silently as she concentrated on her work.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Sssss! Be more gentle! That stings!] - Rose

[Oh stop being such a baby! You're just as bad with pain as he was...] - Alchemist Slime Girl?

Currently the slime girl? was spreading a foul smelling green-gray paste on my burn wounds and while the contact stung quite a bit the numbness spreading out from the caked on medicine? made me sigh in relief.

[Who?] - Rose

[Oh just someone I knew from a long time ago, I'm actually looking for him now but for some reason I haven't been able to find him. His signal dissappeared several months ago.] - Alchemist Slime Girl?

[Signal? What do you mean?] - Rose

[Hah.... right you probably don't understand that word huh? Uhhhh... Think of it like a magic spell that lets me track someone, that spell isn't working anymore for some reason.] - Alchemist Slime Girl?

[...I see.] - Rose

Rose knew what a signal was but decided not to comment on it as it didn't particularly matter. She did wonder if that word was another one that somehow made it over to this world through reincarnated people and heroes though.

[So you're a slime right? Why do you look so human?] - Rose

[Ahh! Well I don't know how common it is but I guess I evolved to look like this? I haven't really met anything like myself yet so I don't know the specifics... I do like the body though, so many new things I can do... heheheheh!] - Alchemist Slime Girl

[Well I'm done here! Move your tail around and tell me how it feels.] - Alchemist Slime Girl

Moving my tail in various ways only seemed to cause a dull ache but no real pain so I guessed that whatever she used was effective. I smiled at her for her help before responding.

[Thank you! It's a little dull and hard to move right but whatever you did seemed to help a lot!] - Rose

[Hehehehe! Such a cute girl thanking me.... Should I ask for a "reward"? heheheheh...] - Alchemist Slime Girl

I could swear I saw drool running out of her mouth but since her entire body was the same bluish slime I wasn't sure. Deciding to ignore her blatantly sexual comment I changed the subject.

[Oh right! What happened to my friends? Did you see what happened to them?] - Rose

[Unfortunately you were the only one I saw, luckily the hellhound that burned you was long gone by that point though cause I'm still no match for that bastard.] - Alchemist Slime Girl

[You've fought it before?] - Rose

Raising my voice from surprise at her statement, weren't slime's the weakest RPG monster?

[Yeah, that dickhead nearly ate me when I first met him and he's blocked every attempt to escape this damn forest. How did you get into the forest anyway? Is there a nearby town? Is everyone there as cute as you?] - Alchemist Slime Girl

[No! I mean y-yeah, I actually go to a nearby academy and we were practicing combat by hunting.... uhhhh, nevermind.] - Rose

[Hahahaha! If you were gonna say that you were hunting slime's don't worry! I do it too! We are the weakest monster afterall! Free EXP!] - Mass Murdering Slime Girl?

[I-I see....] - Rose

Rolling around on her slimy lower body the, self admitted killer of her own species, rummaged through a half destroyed pantry and finding what she was looking for held a iridescent blue orb about the size of my fist in front of my eyes.

[See this? This is a slime core. It's the nucleus of my, and every slime's, life.] - Mass Murdering Slime Girl?

[Okaaaaay?] - Rose

Smirking slightly she suddenly closed her slimy hand and the core seemed to shimmer slightly before being absorbed into the slime girl. I could have sworn that she seemed bigger slightly and her own core, which I could see moving around near where her heart should be, noticeably grew. The look on her face was a look of ecstasy and her slightly jiggling form was sexy as hell.

[I've been feeding this core other's like it to strengthen it so that when I absorb it like so I gain a lot more power. The book taught me to do this. It also feels amazing...] - Not? Mass Murdering Slime Girl

[So slime's gain power by "absorbing" other slime's?] - Rose

[Don't know about other slime's but I certainly do.] - Totally Normal? Slime Girl

Nodding as if I understood I wondered if monster researchers knew anything about this or if it was some unknown information. Malaise certainly didn't seem to know about it cause she made no mention of slime's eating each other when we were discussing slime habits and biology.

[Oh right I forgot to ask if you had a name miss slime.] - Rose

[Miss Slime? Well yeah I guess I have one. Well I did at least.] - Weird? Slime

She paused as if to think about it before answering. Her face turning introspective as if she was wondering how to respond.

[My name's Karen I guess?] - Karen?

[Karen?] - Rose

Suddenly everything clicked. Her familiar mannerisms, similar voice and a face that looked like a younger, more gooey, Karen. My eye's filled with tears and my vision blurred.

[Kare Kare? Is that you?] - Rose-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------