6 - The bus crash

Mase was lying on the ground.

'Argh, I feel like my head is going to explode, It hurts everywhere. I don't think I'm going to get up any time soon. By the way, what just happened? Oh right, I was sleeping on the bus then…A chinese green dragon showed up? Wait, a green dragon?'

The 20 year old pinched his cheek.

'It hurts, I guess it's not a dream after all. Still, a green dragon? Am I dreaming things?'

Mase finally found the resolve to get up. With his entire body aching he slowly stood up.

A small amount of blood was dripping out from a superficial wound on his left shoulder. Noticing this, Mase instinctively pressed his right hand on the wound. He checked himself up just to make sure that he wasn't injured anywhere else.

'Man, my clothes are all tattered…Let's look at the bright side, it's a miracle that I'm still alive. Actually that's kind of unlucky, I could have been freed from my boredom. I'm a bit worried about Deimos, regarding the other passengers… I don't really care.'

Mase turned his head left and right looking for any sign of human activity.

'Huh? This is weird. All I can see is a grassfield and some hills. Maybe during the crash, I was flinged away so hard that I landed dozens meters away from the road?'

<Blop, Blop>

'What is this noise?'

Using his ears he tried to identify the source of this bouncy sound. As he observed the green landscape, he saw a strangely round smooth area. It was more or less 50 cm in diameter.

'Weird… I swear it just moved.'

Something clicked in Mase's brain.

"It's a fucking slime!!! A fucking slime man!" He stated with an astonished expression.

The many pieces of information that didn't make sense by themselves suddenly formed an idea in the young man.

'It must be a situation similar to the one displayed in many comics! It all adds up now! The dragon, the slime, the fact that I survived such a violent crash. It also explains why this place doesn't look like the crop fields around the road we were on. It must be a pocket dimension of some sort! If that's the case then…'

"Status"

Mase looked at the blue window in pure delight.

[Name: Mase Sassari][Mana Density:???]

[Class: Chess GM]

[Passive: Quick Math]

[Skills: Chessboard LV1, White Pawn LV1, Chess Move LV1]

'Let's try to deeply think about my skills.'

The information quickly poured inside his head.

[Chess GM: Exotic class that includes a mixture of abilities from two rare classes: Summoner and Strategist. It also includes unique skills.

Quick Math: This passive allows the user to execute calculus 10 times faster than their normal capabilities.

Chessboard: Activating this skill requires an abundant amount of mana.This skill generates an imaginary chessboard on any terrain. The size and effects depend on the LV of this skill. On a basic level it allows the caster to activate chessboard restricted abilities.

White Pawn: You can summon the weakest piece of the chess roster. His power as well as the amount summoned depends on the LV and amount of mana used(must be resummoned every 12 hours).

Chess Move: When you cast this ability you can instantly move one of your pieces according to the chess rulebook. This ability can only be casted on an active chessboard and its cooldown depends on the LV.]

'This is interesting for sure, but I don't want to risk anything. Right now my priority is to get out of here. It's common knowledge that there should be an exit gate somewhere nearby. I'm basically at the entrance since I didn't move after I found myself here.'

[5 minutes later]

"HUH?" Mase tilted his head.

"I don't see a gate anywhere! Am I actually trapped here?"

'Calm down and think, it might be one of those rare cases where you have to kill all the monsters to be guaranteed a way out. I mean this is the best idea I got so, let's try it.'

Mase gathered his concentration and stated: "White Pawn."

A marble statue appeared out of nowhere just a meter away from Mase. It was a 2 meter tall statue resembling a humanoid figure. The pawn was equipped with full plate armor and it was carrying a longsword on its waist. Every piece of equipment was ivory white.

The summoner found himself huffing and panting, almost struggling to stand on his feet.

'I feel like I just ran a full marathon. It must have something to do with mana capacity/mana pool. Aside from that, I'm not gonna lie, it looks quite impressive. Let's see what it can do.'

"Walk 3 steps forward."

The pawn did exactly as instructed.

'Maybe I should see if I can command it with my mind. It wouldn't be optimal to shout my orders especially if I'm facing an intelligent being.'

Mase issued the same order as before, but this time he did it in his head. Once again the pawn performed his duty.

'I should also test if it has some form of intelligence, or if I have to specifically issue every single one of his moves.'

"Here it goes nothing!"

'Kill the closest slime.' Mase issued the command.

Promptly the statue rushed towards a smile just a few meters away, as soon as it got in striking range it drew its weapon and performed a diagonal slash. The slime was cut in two pieces and right away, it started deteriorating in the similar fashion of a jellyfish.

'Nice! It has some basic intelligence. I didn't issue the command to perform that specific attack, I just asked to kill the slime. I guess it acted in the most efficient way possible. Something is weird though… Slimes according to stories should be almost invulnerable to physical attacks so why did it die right away?'

Driven by his curiosity, Mase got closer to the slime remains. A small gray crystal sliced in half was lying on the floor.

'So this must be why. I think it's a core of some sort.'

He extended his hands to pick it up, but froze at the last second. 'What if the leftover gel is corrosive? Better safe than sorry.'

Mase took off his sweater which was already ruined by the accident and threw it on the jelly. Fumes, along with a strong chemical smell, erupted from the piece of clothing.

"Thank god I stopped myself!"

He then inspected his pawn blade. 'There is no sign of corrosion. Is this guy stronger than I thought?'

Another slime was happily eating grass not too far from them.

'Pawn remove the core of that slime with your hands.'

The statue compiled, with no hesitation it dived its hands inside the slime swiftly removing its core. Once again the jelly creature started decomposing.

Mase inspected the statue's hands but they were immaculate.

'I don't know how to use this core yet, but I should collect them since I have the opportunity.'

He spent the next hour hunting for slimes. Since he wasn't wearing his backpack when he got trapped in the rift, Mase had no choice but to use his t-shirt as a storage bag consequently leaving his trunk completely naked. As he collected the thirtieth core, he heard a sound.

<Ripple>

A rift appeared in front of his nose.

'Time to return. I hope you are fine Deimos, because I'm definitely going to brag about this.'