Victory?

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: I still think this talk of another world is nonsense, but I'm starting to believe there's more to it than just CGI and holograms. (Iron Man vomit emote)

"Oh, really? Who would've thought?" I sarcastically replied as I stashed one of the mimic spider legs in my inventory. "I'm glad I had to get covered in blood and guts for you to start believing."

Unfortunately, the stream didn't have any automatic item collection feature or a screen for me to claim my rewards. If I wanted to find out if the mimic had dropped anything, I needed to rummage through its remains, or at least what was left of them.

So here I was, covered in the blood and guts of a monster that wanted to eat me just a few minutes ago, searching for some item it might have left behind. At least I was keeping some parts of the mimic, like the spider legs. Maybe I could do something with them later.

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Another world is still a stretch, but I believe you now. What is this? Some government experiment? A hidden place on Earth where you landed?

As I saved a piece of flesh that wasn't covered in spikes, I replied, "Another world, for sure, Stark. If this shit were on Earth, humans would've already found it." Well, humans from my world, I guess... In the Marvel universe, there are places like that all over the world, isn't there even a dinosaur kingdom?

"And why is it just you here? Where are the other two?" They were still in the stream, as the viewer count remained the same, but they weren't sending any messages.

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: I don't know, maybe they left to avoid seeing this gruesome scene? Do you really need to search the corpse? (Iron Man vomiting oil emote). And why are you keeping parts of the corpse?

Pulling off another piece of meat, I tossed it into my inventory. I wouldn't want to be watching something like this, let alone participating, but here we are.

"It was going to eat me, so it's only fair I eat it."

Of course, I needed to make sure it wasn't poisoned or anything. I'll have to see if the Guild has someone who knows how to cook monsters, but then I'd have to explain where this thing came from... Damn, it's never simple.

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Are you out of your mind?! Have you considered how bad this could turn out? What kind of disease this thing might have?

I resumed searching the monster's corpse. "Of course, I'll be careful and boil the meat first. Don't worry... I found something!"

It was wedged within the monster's flesh, something small and metallic, with an opening. I had to apply some force to remove it, but I managed after a while.

To my delight, it wasn't part of the chest lock. It was a ring, or at least it seemed to be a ring. It was attached to the top of an organ I would guess was the mimic's heart. Maybe something the mimic's body created? Perhaps?

After cleaning it, I could see that the ring wasn't very large, maybe the size of a bottle cap. It was a dark black color, like coagulated blood, with small grooves covering its entire surface that looked like veins; they also pulsed with a faint red glow.

Clearly, I stored the ring in my inventory. I'm not crazy enough to put this thing on my finger before I'm sure it won't rip it off or worse!

I searched for a while longer but found nothing, just more flesh and wood.

Finishing with the mimic's corpse, I stood up, stretched my muscles, and grabbed my phone. It had been two hours since I entered the dungeon. It was almost noon. Let's finish this and get back to town.

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Finally! I couldn't stand watching you mess with meat any longer! Are you going to leave this place now? (Iron Man emote with a question mark on his head)

I intend to see if this place has some kind of boss or core, see if it can be destroyed or killed, and then leave. If the boss is King Slime, I'm getting out of here in a hurry.

Taking the map and the copper sword again, I went back to explore the parts of the dungeon I hadn't been to yet.

[RedHuntressLive]: Is it over?! I was reading the chat and minimized the stream after I came back from the bathroom, no more gross stuff exploding and blood? (Emote of a nauseated Little Red Riding Hood)

Red seemed to have returned.

"Hey, Red! You were gone for a while, are you okay? And yes, I'm already far from the mimic's body, but I'm still covered in blood."

[RedHuntressLive]: Thank goodness! I went to vomit in the bathroom, I've never seen anything like that, it was horrible! (Emote of a rainbow-vomiting Little Red Riding Hood) Weiss is still in the bathroom, she looked sick when I left.

I thought it might be that. "Sorry about that, Red, but I needed to make sure I didn't leave anything behind. Look on the bright side, I found this!" I showed her the small ring.

[RedHuntressLive]: OOOHHH! What does it do? Transformation powers? Maybe super strength? Speed? (Emote of a Little Red Riding Hood with a question mark above her head). And it looks COOL!, kinda creepy, but cool!

I don't know whether to be worried or happy that she can change emotions so quickly. Shrugging, I put the ring back in my inventory.

"I don't know yet; I'll see if I can figure it out later. For now, I just want to get out of this place and take a shower; I'm disgusting!"

Following the dark areas of the map, I found a few more empty rooms and corridors with some slimes, but nothing more than that. It took a while until I found a room that was different from the others.

This specific room had a door, and the entrance seemed larger, at least twice the size of the others. It was a double door, made of metal, with a gray color like the walls around it. What set it apart were the silver chains that seemed to be welded to the door and the white skull in the middle of it.

It might as well have said 'boss room,' and it wouldn't make a difference.

"To enter or not to enter?" I couldn't help but murmur.

If it were before encountering that mimic, I would probably enter, since there's not supposed to be anything too strong in here, but I'm sure I would have been beaten by the mimic if I hadn't blown it up with the slime. I don't even want to imagine what the boss would do to me.

That is, if the boss is stronger than the mimic. Unlike this room, which clearly showed that there was something dangerous behind it, the mimic's room was secret; it was hidden behind a wall, optional.

Well, let's try something; I had dragged the screen from before to the corner of my vision.

[Slime Dungeon: Classic Mode initiated - Quick escape allowed, would you like to exit the dungeon? (Yes/no)]"

Now, the questions. If I were to exit the dungeon, would it reset or not? Would the monsters I killed respawn, or would it stay the same until I return?

And there's the most important question. If I entered the 'boss room,' would I be able to exit using this screen? Many games take that option away from the player, and this wasn't a game; I didn't have extra lives to try again.

But... I had to try, to take a risk, just like I did with the mimic. I needed to get stronger.

Taking a deep breath, I adjusted my equipment. I fixed the uneven part of the chainmail that the mimic had cut. I tightened the parts that seemed loose on my armor. I took my last potion from the inventory and put it in my pocket.

Gripping my sword with my right hand, I reached out. As I was about to start pushing the door, a message appeared in the (CHAT).

[RedHuntressLive]: Are you sure! You got hurt badly back there, you could get hurt again or... something worse! Just come back; you don't even have an aura!

My mouth couldn't help but twist into a smile. I'm glad Red cares so much. She didn't even send an emote this time; she must be serious.

I hesitated, but an image flashed, taking shape in my mind, making my hesitation practically disappear.

"I'm glad you care so much, Ruby, but you know, I have to do this."

After those words, I pushed the door. I didn't want to give her time to write anything else; maybe she would convince me otherwise.

It wasn't as hard to open it as I expected. Contrary to my expectations, when my hand touched the door, it practically opened on its own, giving me a view of what lay behind it.

It was an oval room with several stone pillars around it, connected to each pillar were golden chains with small inscriptions in a language I couldn't recognize.

The chains led to the center of the room and entangled themselves around a metal sphere floating a few meters above the ground. Through the openings in this sphere, I could see that there was something inside.

Unlike the dungeon, which was lit with torches, the room was illuminated by a large blue crystal in the center of the ceiling.

With the door already open, I grabbed a torch in my free hand and started walking inside.

When I entered the room fully, what I feared happened. The door behind me closed with force, causing the fire on the torch I was holding to flicker, and the exit window I had left in the corner of my vision closed. Whatever was here, I needed to kill it if I wanted to get out.

At the same time the door closed, the pillars began to shake, and the part where the chains were connected exploded, leaving the room shrouded in dust and causing the sphere in the center of the room to fall to the ground.

While the dust hadn't settled, all I could hear were the sounds of the chains on the ground dragging, as if something was trying to escape, as if it were angry.

In the middle of the room, as the dust began to clear, I could see that the chains had been thrown to the sides, as if something was expanding from within them. Then I saw my current enemy.

It was a gray slime, like the others, but unlike the ones I had killed, this one was large, the size of a large dog, maybe a small wolf.

The slime seemed to notice me the moment it emerged from the chains. Its gelatinous body trembled and appeared to become spikier; it was angry, very angry.

I smiled helplessly at it. I should have guessed; the only type of grayish slime in Terraria is the Mother Slime and her offspring, and it seems that mommy could smell the corpses of her children on my body.

With my legs spread apart, I prepared to face the enraged mother. Let's see if she has the same opening move as her offspring.

The Mother Slime tensed up, then jumped in my direction. The only thing that saved me from having a few ribs broken was the combat experience I gained from her children. She was much faster than her offspring.

Swiftly dodging to the left, I could feel a small part of her body touch my shoulder. It hurt like hell; she managed to do more in a mere touch than the slime I held did in several minutes while I held it.

And, to my misfortune, unlike the offspring, she could melt more than just flesh. I could hear and, most importantly, feel my t-shirt and chainmail hiss and melt.

Looking at my shoulder, I could see it was ugly. My t-shirt had melted and practically fused with my skin, and the chainmail wasn't much better; a large portion of the metal had melted and stuck to my shoulder.

Ignoring the pain, I rotated my injured shoulder; I could still move it, albeit barely, which was good.

Even with this, a small smile crept onto my face. She might be faster than her offspring and much more acidic, but she was much slower than the mimic and, most importantly, she attacked my right side.

My smile grew and then disappeared almost immediately. I had a plan in mind, but it wasn't one I wanted to execute.

"You're afraid of fire, aren't you?" I asked rhetorically to the large slime in front of me.

She seemed to understand me and became even more irritated; her gelatinous body trembled as if she were experiencing an internal earthquake. She appeared furious but didn't attack me as before, seeming to study me.

I stowed my sword in the inventory; it had melted my armor with little more than a touch, so my sword wouldn't do much against her. The torch would be enough.

Leaving the Mother Slime within my sight, I walked to the nearest chain. Holding the torch in my right hand, I crouched down. Still facing the slime, I grabbed the end of the chain in my hand.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that the chains were made of gold, one of the most corrosion-resistant metals, if not the most. And something told me that the small inscriptions on the chains reinforced this aspect of the metal, as she had been trapped inside them for who knows how long and hadn't managed to escape.

The core of all the slimes I had seen so far was in the center of their bodies; hers, despite being harder to see due to the darker color of her body, was still in the center.

"Hey, Ruby, cover your ears for a minute, and... actually, see you tomorrow, until next time." Murmuring without turning my head, I held the torch with my teeth and took my phone from the inventory, turning off the stream.

It didn't matter; I'd rather spend the SP needed to turn off the stream than let Ruby watch what I was about to do. It was selfish, but I didn't want her to see.

Taking a deep breath, I stowed the phone back in the inventory and grabbed the torch again with my right hand. I needed her to jump to my left side.

Now, I would need to provoke her enough.

"Do you know an interesting fact, Mother Slime?" I asked the slime that seemed to want to melt me entirely.

This was a lousy plan, I knew that. If she could move the core inside her body, I was screwed; if she didn't jump forcefully enough, I was screwed; if she wasn't provoked, I was screwed.

Even knowing what I was about to do, I forced myself to make the purest smile I could and opened my arms, as if inviting her for a hug.

I knew what would make her angry, what would make any mother angry enough to ignore everything, the killer of her offspring.

Then I turned my smile into something sarcastic and derogatory.

"If you had taught your children, maybe they would be afraid of fire too." She seemed even more irritated by my words; her body stiffened and twisted like a compressed spring.

If I mistimed this, melting wouldn't be my problem; I would probably explode upon impact. With my leg muscles tense, I prepared.

Putting on the biggest smile I could and using the happiest voice I could muster, I continued.

"When I set fire to the first one, he only realized what was happening shortly before he exploded!" I let my head tilt to the side, as if genuinely curious. "Did he feel pain before dying? Did he call for his mother before bursting into flames?"

And that was enough. The Mother Slime stiffened and stood still as if frozen in time. Then she made a noise I can only describe as 'Hatred in sound form.' Then she jumped at me with all her might.

I was already prepared for this. So when she left the ground, I had already taken a few steps to the side and pulled the chain with all my strength, leaving it stretched and close to the middle of the slime, her core.

It was practically instantaneous; the Mother Slime practically flew towards me and hit the chain. I could feel the impact of the chain and the core with my arms, making me release the chain due to the force of the collision.

The core of the Mother Slime practically exploded upon impact, with pieces flying everywhere, her body splitting in two, cut in half.

Before I could raise my arms, a shard large enough tore through my face, creating a gash just above my nose that extended just below my right eye, nearly blinding me.

Swiftly raising my arms, I shielded myself from the rest of the shards with my armor.

Looking back, I could see what happened to her body; one piece flew to the ground and skidded, scattering, while the other headed for the wall and collided with it with enough force to explode and paint the entire area.

What surprised me was that, even without the core, even split in two, the Mother Slime's body tried to move, not toward the core or another part, no, it tried to come towards me, with one final effort, just before falling lifeless, dead.

I ignored the notifications from the stream and walked up to the closest part of her body; I knelt down.

As far as I knew, and had read in the bestiary, slimes didn't feel pain, nor were they conscious; they only had basic instinct and minimal intelligence, some smarter than others.

The Mother Slime seemed smarter than all the slimes I had encountered, both inside and outside the dungeon; she should have known how her species functioned, so why?

But even knowing how her species worked, even knowing her offspring couldn't feel pain, even with all of that, by the force with which she lunged towards me, even if she had collided with my body, she would have died upon impact with me; she essentially committed suicide.

And I left her angry enough that even in death, her remains tried to reach me one last time, trying to kill me.

"He... funny, I won, didn't I?" I whispered to myself.

My eyes blurred, probably from the dust that rose when the chains fell to the ground.

I could also feel something trickling down my face, probably blood running from the cut; I just didn't understand why it was flowing from the left side, even though the cut was on the right side.

"So... why doesn't it seem like that?" I couldn't help but wonder as I stared into nothingness.