Aethelgard: The Survival Game (Chloe) novel Chapter 2

NoMoreBadLuck: [Holy crap, heads up. You can hook MONSTERS while fishing!

[Anyone got healing potions or literally anything? I can trade Buff Food but won’t have it till tomorrow.]

WindWalker: [What kind of monster? High damage? I’ve got a potion, but how do I know your food’s actually worth it.]

[My skill summons a Food Dispenser, one serving of Buff Food a day. Already burned through today’s!] [Three Loaves of Bread for one Bandage. Plus the monster intel.]

[Deal. PM me!]

The Trading Post chat went quiet after that.

Chloe’s stomach dropped the moment she saw the word “monsters“. With stats like hers, a creature encounter was the last thing she needed.

Nerves got the better of her. She snatched the Basic Hoe off the ground and white–knuckled it like a baseball bat, one eye on the fishing rod and the other glued to the Trading Post feed, scraping together every bit of intel she could find.

Half an hour later, a savage tug nearly ripped the rod clean out of her hands.

Whatever was on the other end pulled hard enough to drag her whole body toward the darkness below. Back in the real world, Chloe had spent her entire life as a librarian with her nose buried in books. Physical strength had never been part of the package.

Turns out, one point of Strength was even more pathetic than it sounded.

At least the thing on the line wasn’t all that strong either. It jerked and twisted like a living creature, pulling the line bowstring–tight until it looked one tug away from snapping.

Sweat drenched her from head to toe as she reeled the line in, hand over hand. Her arms screamed for a break, but the thought of starving to death kept her fingers clamped down on the rod.

Right about then, she understood exactly how the old man in Hemingway’s book felt. She was cooked.

Every disadvantage of zero Strength came crashing down on her at once. Sweat rolled into her eyes and burned like hell. Thirty agonizing minutes of tug–of–war later, Chloe finally wrenched the thing out of the water.

What came up stopped her cold.

A round, squishy blue Slime sat dangling from the line, roughly the size of a basketball. Its body rippled and shimmered like it was made of living water, and two big, cartoonishly round eyes blinked up at her. The thing was, frankly, adorable.

None of that saved it. Chloe yanked the line tight with one hand, hoisted the Basic Hoe overhead with the other, and brought it down square on top of the Slime.

The hoe barely did anything, though that probably had more to do with Chloe’s garbage attack stat than the tool itself. The spot where she struck dimpled inward like memory foam and bounced right back.

[Dealt 1 damage to Juvenile Slime]

Chloe stared at the notification. ‘One? Seriously?‘ she thought.

The hit wasn’t entirely useless, though. A health bar flickered to life above the Slime’s head. Two hundred Health, now sitting at 199. The little blob had more HP than her own 150.

Cute or not, the thing was still a monster. The slime’s cartoonish mouth split wide open, and three pressurized globs of water came firing out in rapid succession.

Chloe didn’t stand a chance of dodging. Her agility was rock–bottom, and every shot connected clean.

Her health bar nosedived as each aqua sphere slammed into her like a fastball to the ribs, ugly bruises blooming across her skin while a dull, throbbing ache radiated through her whole torso.

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Chapter 2 Slime

Teeth clenched, she hauled the line in close and swung the hoe down on the slime twice more. The basketball- sized blob let out a wet splat and lunged straight at her, closing the gap to point–blank range.

The water hits hurt like hell. Meanwhile, every swing of her hoe barely scratched the thing, chipping off one measly point of damage per strike.

[Attack successful. Slime HP–1.

[Player struck by Aqua Sphere. Player HP–10.

[Attack successful. Slime HP–1.

[Player HP–10.]

At this rate, she was going to lose.

Hooking a monster out of the water was one thing. Actually killing it with a strength of 1 was a completely different problem. If this fight dragged on any longer, the one hitting the floor first wasn’t going to be the slime. Then, right when her nerves were about to snap, something shifted.

Whether it was the scorching heat or just dumb luck, wisps of steam started curling off the slime’s body. The little creature sagged flat against the ground, barely managing to cough up one last weak glob of water.

Bit by bit, the slime was shrinking. A puddle of melted runoff spread beneath it, and the connection clicked instantly.

The sun overhead was brutal enough to make Chloe dizzy on its own. For a creature made almost entirely of water, it was a slow death sentence.

The slime made one desperate lunge for the water’s edge, but Chloe dug her heels in and white–knuckled the line.

Even half–melted, the Slime still packed more raw power than she did, and it nearly hauled her right over the cliff.

Fifteen more agonizing minutes crawled by before the slime finally went limp, baked unconscious under the

sun.

[You have slain Juvenile Slime.]

Chloe let the rod drop. Both palms were raw and bleeding, thin lines of red seeping through torn skin. The rest of her looked like she had lost a fight with a mud pit.

Her throat felt like sandpaper, her stomach was eating itself, every bruise screamed when she moved, and her muscles had turned to jelly.

Maybe a luck of four had actually pulled its weight. Looking back, the slime turned out to be more of an endurance test than a real fight. Its attacks stung, but they were survivable, and all she had to do was outlast

1. it.

Chloe gave herself a few seconds to catch her breath, then dragged herself over to check the spoils.

The slime’s body dissolved the instant it stopped moving, leaving a wooden loot chest sitting in its place. Chloe cracked it open.

[Obtained: Slime Ooze x3

[Obtained: Clean Water x17 fl oz

[Obtained: Aqua Sphere Tome Fragment x1 (1/5)

[First Slime Kill. Bonus Special Material: Slime Essence]

Most of the item names meant nothing to her yet, but tapping on the slime ooze pulled up a full breakdown of its properties.

[Slime Ooze: Spiritually attuned biological material with innate magical affinity

[Quality: Common

[Properties: Spiritual Medium / Alchemical Ingredient / Catalyst / Binder

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Chapter 2 Slime

[Slime Essence: Rare magical material that only condenses from advanced slimes with exceptional elemental affinity. Highly prized among mages.

[Quality: Rare

[Properties: High–Magic Medium / Alchemical Ingredient / High–Density Crystal

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