NOVEL NEXT Chapter 99 – Caught in a trap
Chapter 99 - Trap-tacularly caught in a pit-iful situation
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I barely had enough time to scream before I fell on something soft and bouncy. Above me, I saw that I had fallen through a trap door that hinged down with the ladder attached to it. This wasn’t in the game!
Looking around me, I saw that I was in a room with gray stone walls. I was lying on a mound of brown goo approximately twelve feet above the earthen floor. Twenty feet above me was a stone ceiling with the trapdoor that was slowly closing itself. Brown goo was steadily dripping down from dozens of small holes in one corner of the ceiling. There was only one usable exit that I could see, a round hole in the ceiling with a ladder leading up to it.
When I tried to get up, my feet and hands sank into the soft surface that I was lying on.
“What the-” The more I struggled, the more I sank into the brown gooey substance. It wasn’t sandy, which meant that it wasn’t quicksand, but it seemed to behave the same way. When I stopped moving, the rate at which I sank slowed down drastically.
My mind raced as I tried to think of a solution.
I stopped struggling and frantically searched the Cash Shop for an item that could help me.
[Diving Helmet:
Going on an exciting adventure under the sea? Use this item to enable you to breathe underwater.]
The [Diving Helmet] was a novelty item that was given away as a prize in a summer event. I remembered that for a few weeks after that, everyone in Adventure Incarnate went around with a fishbowl-looking helmet on their head.
“Please work, please work, please work!” I equipped the item, desperately hoping it would function as genuine diving gear rather than merely a cosmetic fashion accessory.
A wave of relief washed over me when I saw the System popup.
[Oxygen Level: 10/10]
There was even a [Buy More Oxygen] button that I could use if I ran out. This function definitely wasn’t in the game since the long-promised underwater expansion was never released, but I was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
I reckoned that I would be fine as long as I could breathe, so I let myself sink down to the bottom of the goo. Thank goodness it didn’t smell bad. In fact, it smelled rather pleasant, like cola with a slight rose scent.
When my feet finally touched the earthen floor, I walked as fast as I could to the exit. The jelly-like substance slowed down my limbs, and I could hardly see where I was going, but I eventually managed to find the ladder. Climbing up was an ordeal because the gelatinous material and fishbowl helmet weighed me down. The moment my shoulders cleared the goo, I took the helmet off and stored it in my inventory. With my burden lightened, I climbed faster and went through the hole in the ceiling into a short corridor lined with gray stone tiles.
I put a hand on my chest and heaved a sigh of relief. Then I realized that I was not completely free of the brown goo.
“Oh my gosh, I’m covered in slime!”
For one mad moment, I felt the urge to place an outdoor shower in the corridor to cleanse myself. I had already selected the item in the Cash Shop when I came to my senses. This was most likely not a safe spot, and it would be crazy to take a shower here. I would just have to bear with the slimey feeling on my skin for now.
At the other end of this underground passage was a plain wooden door. The small golden key I got from the Boss fit the lock perfectly.
I was almost blinded by a bright light when I opened the door and my ears were assailed by a loud chorus of “Chu, chu, chu!!”
All of the weeks that I had spent underground in the dim light must have affected my eyes, which watered and stung. I could hear the door swinging shut behind me as I equipped sunglasses to look around.
The gigantic cavern I was in was so large that I couldn’t see the other side. Hundreds of yellow, blue, green, red, and black slimes were bouncing around the open space in the middle while all around the earthen walls, colorful glowing flowers bloomed in riotous profusion. To my right was a white stone platform half covered in pretty white crystals and boulders painted with vibrant psychedelic flower designs.
I thought that the sounds they were making were because of me, but I was wrong. Only three small slime monsters noticed me. The rest went about their own business, bouncing here and there, eating the flowers by swallowing them whole, and playfully rubbing against each other.
I could almost see a cutesy flower banner overlaying the cavern saying, “Slime Wonderland Event!” the way it appeared in the game.
My skin crawled when I saw a few slimes going to a certain portion of the cavern where they excreted a brown substance.
… The same brown substance that I was currently covered in!
“Chu!” One of the small slimes that had noticed me bounced up to my eye level. The slime strand on the top of its head was in the shape of a heart.
Ah! So this was my reward for the Boss fight. I petted its forehead and a System pop-up appeared.
[Tame Pet?]
[Yes] [No]
Of course, I clicked on the [Yes] button!
The slime’s eyes widened and it let out an extremely loud “Chu!” sound before bouncing its way into my arms.
“Hmm, what should I call you?” Chu? Slimey? Bouncer? I couldn’t think of a good nickname for my pet, so I clicked on the dice icon to roll a random name for her.
[Squishkins]
[Accept] [Reject]
Rejected! I kept on rolling names, but I simply couldn’t get a good one.
“I’ll just call you Cutie for now,” I said. The name could be changed later.
With my pet slime monster in my arms, I went over to the flowers and foraged some seeds.
[Sunfire Buttercup Blossom:
A pretty yellow flower.]
Wow, this must be from that time when Adventure Incarnate’s developers had become lazy about writing the flavor text for items. Nonetheless, I checked the other seeds in case they had any special properties.
[Luminous Marigold:
It glows in the dark.]
Ah. Well, these were probably the slime’s favorite flowers, which I should use to feed my pet.
[Mythic Goldenrod:
A bright, golden-yellow flower.]
Rolling my eyes dramatically at the game writers’ slothful ways, I went around the cavern collecting seeds and looking for treasure. I found a few random fossils of no particular importance, as well as an uncut [Diamond].
It didn’t take me long to find the secret door, since I remembered that it was on the right side of the platform. I pushed a large red boulder to one side, exposing a steel square beneath it, which I proceeded to stomp on until a portion of the wall slid open with an earsplitting grinding sound. Behind it was a dark tunnel.
I took out a flashlight from my inventory and put Mr. Bear in front of me. Still holding my pet in one arm, I cautiously entered, jumping a little when the door closed behind me. I needn’t have worried, however, as the passageway was short and led me to the portal.
“Yes! Finally, we can go home!”
I ran straight to the stone arch that was covered in glowing blue runes. On its right side was a pedestal that had a white marble tablet mounted on it. Though I couldn’t read the text on the tablet, that didn’t matter because the System provided me with its own control panel. Most of the portal locations were gray and dark, meaning they were inactive. I mentally clicked on the only available location.
Once I had made my choice, the empty space in the middle of the portal started glowing with a white light which slowly faded and formed into a set of large doors made up of countless runes. The doors opened with an excruciating slowness that made me want to scream. Finally, I saw my chosen location behind the doors.
I made Mr. Bear shrink until he was small enough for me to attach to my belt then stepped through the portal.
- She fell into the slime's latrine pit, but she's okay. It's over! Yes! Time to go back to the farm.
- Guys, I went to a different doctor this time, and I got some new meds. Unfortunately, the meds don't seem to be working. We're giving it a few more days. I'll try to post more chapters, but I might be too busy going to doctors and getting lab tests.
- Advanced chapters on my Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/linmeili
- Thank you very much for reading.
- Did you spot an error? Please leave a comment so I can fix it!
This is totally the face of someone who isn't crazy.
A very normal portal stone controller.
A normal and not scary portal.