Aethelgard: The Survival Game (Chloe) novel Chapter 5

Twenty more minutes crawled by before the rod finally bucked in Chloe’s hands. It was exactly what she wanted, which was another slime.

The familiar pull hit the line, except today it was far heavier. With a one–point–strength, every inch of line felt like a losing battle.

Sweat ran down her face as she planted herself flat on the ground, hauling and wrenching with everything her body could give, barely managing to wrestle the Slime to the surface.

This one was noticeably bigger.

Yesterday’s slime had been about the size of a basketball. The creature bobbing in front of her now was closer to an exercise ball, and those oversized eyes no longer looked cute. They looked hostile.

A system notification confirmed her gut feeling.

[Adolescent Slime: A slime forcibly pulled from unfamiliar territory. It is extremely angry.]

The second the slime cleared the water, it opened fire with magic, pelting Chloe with a volley of high–pressure water blasts.

Each droplet hit like a rubber bullet. The impact left ugly purple bruises blooming across her skin on contact, the deep kind of pain that felt like catching a fastball bare–handed. No blood, but every spot the blasts connected went completely numb.

Behind her, the tent, dew collector, and crafting table all took stray hits. Their durability was ticking down right before her eyes.

This could not go on. The sun overhead was brutal enough that the heat might kill the slime eventually, but her gear would be trashed long before that happened.

Chloe gritted her teeth and made a call. She grabbed a wooden log, lit one end, and jammed the fishing rod under her arm to keep the slime pinned on the line.

Then she hauled it in close and swung. One pathetic point of strength behind every hit, nothing but spite keeping her arms moving.

The makeshift torch fizzled out the instant it touched the slime’s body. Physical hits barely scratched the thing, each swing chipping away almost nothing.

So Chloe stopped thinking about the pain altogether. She pressed the smoldering end of the torch against the slime’s surface and held it there, letting the sun cook what the fire couldn’t, grinding the creature down through pure stubbornness.

Once the slime burned through its water magic, it switched tactics and started body–slamming her, launching itself forward like a living wrecking ball. Every collision rattled her teeth and turned her vision white. Finally, the slime went limp. Its body dissolved into a pool of light and solidified into a gleaming silver chest. [Notice: Player survival probability critically low. Bonus applied for defeating a higher–level monster. Upgraded loot chest awarded.]

By the time the slime finally stopped moving, every inch of Chloe’s body ached. She dropped to the ground right where she stood, too spent to care about the dirt or the mess, and didn’t even glance at the loot chest it had left behind.

Her breath came in ragged, shallow pulls. Stars swam across her vision, and exhaustion pressed down on her like dead weight.

Scrapes and welts covered her arms. Her skin was a mess of angry purple bruises from head to toe.

She wiped the sweat off her face with the back of her hand and dragged herself over to check the damage on her gear.

What she found stopped her cold.

1/3

Chapter 5 Soil Expansion

The dew collector had already gathered close to five fluid ounces of water, nearly a full day’s output in under an hour.

‘Was that because of the water slime?‘ The thought sent a small jolt through her chest.

She reached for the wooden cup sitting beneath the collector and lifted it to eye level. The water inside was impossibly clear, carrying a faint, almost floral sweetness in its scent.

Her throat bobbed on instinct.

She was dying of thirst. She brought the cup to her lips and drained it in one long pull.

The taste hit her all at once, cool and clean with a lingering sweetness that seemed to sink straight through her skin. Every pore on her body seemed to open up and breathe.

She had never tasted anything this good in her life, and the empty cup in her hand felt like a personal insult. She placed it back under the collector with visible reluctance, letting the device get back to work. Once she confirmed the tent had only lost a single point of durability, the knot in her shoulders finally loosened. Only then did she turn her attention to the silver chest.

She had cracked open a wooden loot chest before, and a bronze one after that. Now she had a silver. ‘No idea what’s inside. God, if it’s anything I can use to get clean, I might actually lose it,’ Chloe thought. The fight with the water slime had left a slick film over her entire body. All that rolling and scrambling on the ground had caked dirt into every fold and crease until she looked like she had crawled out of a mud pit.

A shower sounded like a fantasy at this point. The cruel part was that water had become far too precious to waste on something as basic as hygiene.

Just a few days ago, standing under a hot spray with a bottle of body wash had been the most ordinary thing in the world. Now that memory felt like it belonged to a different life entirely.

While her mind drifted, the silver chest clicked open.

[Obtained: Fresh Water (17 fl oz), Glass x5, Slime Ooze x5, Cubic Yard Soil Plot (1 cubic yard) x1

[Obtained: Flora Whisperer’s Cap x1

[Obtained: Basic BBQ Grill Blueprint]

[Obtained: Aqua Sphere Tome Fragment x3]

Chloe’s eyes lit up. That was a serious haul.

[Cubic Yard Soil Plot: Increases your territory by one cubic yard.

[Quality: Premium

[Flora Whisperer’s Cap: A hat that enables basic telepathic contact with nearby plant life. Limited materials and harsh conditions have degraded its original capabilities significantly.

[Rarity: Rare

[Durability: 100/100

[Effect: Grants brief communication with plants, allowing the wearer to sense their needs and identify sources of corruption.

[Basic BBQ Grill Blueprint (3 uses after learning)

[Basic BBQ Grill: A simple rack for cooking meat. At the very least, it keeps you from burning everything to charcoal. Also serves as a reliable light source.

[Quality: Common

[Durability: 20/20

[Crafting Requirement: Crafting Table

[Materials: Iron Scraps x3, Wooden Logs x3, Charcoal x2, Stone x4

2/3

Chapter 5 Soil Expansion

[Aqua Sphere Tome Fragment (4/5): Collect all five fragments to learn the special magic skill, Aqua Sphere.] Looking at everything she’d gained, Chloe felt every ounce of exhaustion melt into pure satisfaction. One more tome fragment, and she would have her very own attack skill.

The grin on her face stretched from ear to ear. The grill was the real prize, though. She still had three cuts of rabbit meat from the night before, and now she finally had something to cook them on.

Better yet, she already had every material the grill required. Last night’s fire had burned down to two chunks of charcoal, which covered the final ingredient.

She cast the fishing line back into the darkness beside her and got to work at the crafting table. Even just for the light alone, the grill was worth building.

[Spend 10 Energy to craft a grill?]

That cost a lot less than the dew collector had. Chloe hit “yes” without a second thought.

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