Tabula Rasa: Adventures In A New World

“Oh?” Krvavy curiously squints into the darkness ahead. The light of her lantern dances across the wall, just barely spilling through a tall rectangular gap. A doorway. “That’s new.”

They’ve been making their way along this curved path for quite some time now, passing by nothing but cell after cell after cell. Most of which were empty, but a few had some more deposits of quartz, each cluster growing out of another cot. A fact that Beryl has pointed out more than a few times.

“Rrrrgh...” Khalia impatiently growls, trailing her clawed fingers along the wall with enough force to leave faint scratch marks in the worn stone.

Only a handful of slimes have bothered to show up. And none of them were particularly large. Which has left the Were-Beast rather... restless. Understandably so. She was more or less promised a fight if she tagged along, but hasn’t had the chance to do much beyond splattering some small puddles.

Krvavy lifts the lantern high as she steps forwards, illuminating what lays beyond that empty doorway. Her brow furrows faintly, but she isn’t surprised by what she sees.

It is a stairwell.

One that only leads downwards. In its center is a large gap. Which is too tempting to ignore, no matter how little Krvavy trusts this ancient ruin with her weight...

The Drakling holds her axe out behind her, using both it and her meaty tail as a counterweight so that she doesn’t have to get too close to the slightly crumbling edge. She leans further and further forwards, the lantern swaying as it hangs from her hand.

She can’t help but frown as she quite plainly sees the bottom of this stairwell. It doesn’t go that far down. Just to the floor below this one, from the look of it. Which paints a rather annoying picture in Krvavy’s mind. She can only assume that they’ll have to cross the entire prison again and again, just to get from one floor to the next...

“Tsk.” Krvavy clicks her tongue as she carefully straightens up and steps back. “We’ll explore down there some other time. Let’s finish looking around this floor first.”

The barbarian has hardly turned around before Khalia suddenly makes a noise.

“Mate...” That softly growled grunt is accompanied by the repeated thwipping sound of Khalia’s tail wagging back and forth. “Big slime...!”

Emerging from the darkness in the direction that they came from is, as Khalia just said, a rather big slime. The top of that blobby thing looks to be about level with Krvavy’s waist. Which would make it roughly the same height as Inanna. But unlike that Dwarf, this slime is much wider than it is tall. Significantly so.

Like every other slime they’ve seen so far, this one is also a rather muddy brown. Though it isn’t quite the same shade... It seems more washed out. Duller. A bit more... grey...? Krvavy has no idea if that means anything, or if that is simply a consequence of its size. The colour could just be diluted in its gooey mass, for all she knows.

Still, this is better than those tiny little blobs they’ve been dealing with so far.

“Beryl, my sweet berry,” the Drakling playfully coos at her Elf, “do you think that you can cut that thing in half? Might make it more manageable.”

“Aye.” Beryl replies with a faint sigh, doing a poor job at hiding her displeasure about still being in this place. They already got what they came here for – a backpack full of quartz – but still her dearest love insists on lingering in this dreadfully dark ruin...

Khalia tilts her head and watches with impatient interest as that tomboyish Elf takes a single step forwards.

A faint glow emanates from the lines that have been carved into the Wood Elf woman’s wooden paddle of a weapon. She takes a deep breath. The air around those glowing runes seems to shimmer slightly. “Hhhh!” Beryl sharply exhales, suddenly snapping into action. A trail of cutting wind follows the arc of her odd weapon’s flat head as she brings it down in a strong overhead strike, splitting the air itself into a blade that rushes forwards.

The surface of that slime ripples and parts, a valley digging into its slightly muddy mass, drawing a vertical line from top to bottom. That valley deepens, becoming a ravine then a full on canyon before... simply disappearing as the slime continues rolling forwards, its goo melding back together as if nothing at all had happened.

That wave of air simply lost its strength in the short distance between Elf and slime.

“Ach.” Beryl scowls and clicks her tongue in annoyance, raising the paddle up for another try. This time she lunges forwards, swinging the wind wreathed wooden weapon down like an axe upon the slime. The flat wooden head of that paddle collides into the stone ground with a clunk as a burst of air pushes the two newly cut blobs apart, their unequal sizes becoming readily apparent as soon as they settle into themselves.

“Alright. Khalia, you can take the bigger half.”

Those words are barely even out of Krvavy’s mouth before the Were-Beast woman launches herself at the slime, wildly tearing into it with her claws. That... doesn’t seem to be the most effective, but there really isn’t much the slime can do to stop her.

Wet slapping sounds echo through the stagnant air of this buried ruin, accompanied by near-constant squelching slurps and the heated grunting of that aggressive Orc.

Doing her best to not let those surprisingly lewd noises distract her, the Drakling turns her gaze away from the slow slaughter of that slime and instead focuses her attention towards Beryl.

The Wood Elf’s movements are... not clumsy, but not quite as graceful as Krvavy has come to expect from her either. She is trying to keep her distance from the slime, clearly not wanting it to grab onto her like last time, but that kind of makes it difficult to whack the thing with her paddle...

Despite her almost hesitant caution, Beryl is still slowly shaving her foe down. Each swing of her odd weapon sends sharp gusts of wind flying towards that slime, slicing off thin strips of its surface that, for the most part, quickly dissolve into nothingness.

But the aggressively wild way that Khalia is taking care of her half of that slime does not help the Elf. The Were-Beast’s frenzied slapping slashes keeps splattering gooey chunks all over the place, unintentionally adding to the half that Beryl is fighting. Not to mention that many of those scattered blobs end up reforming into smaller slimes that then have to be dealt with as they mindlessly beeline straight towards the nearest person. Which is Beryl, for the most part.

Krvavy can’t help but feel a little disappointed that she isn’t getting to fight as well. And no, stomping on the occasional tiny puddle that oozes her way doesn’t count. But, then again, having to fight a proper slime of all things isn’t exactly the most exciting thing. It is kind of tedious... So, really, she doesn’t mind missing out on the ‘fun’ all that much.

Besides, keeping the quartz crystals intact is more important than getting a few points of experience.

A slight bit of movement, just barely visible in the corner of her eye, draws the Drakling’s attention away from her girls. Turning to the side, looking further ahead along the curved path they’ve been following, Krvavy spots another slime. One that is currently oozing up over the edge of the pit.

The barbarian pauses. This new slime is blue. A dark and slightly dirty looking blue, but it is still clearly blue in colour. And, even more worryingly, it just keeps growing larger and larger as more mass creeps up onto the pathway.

Krvavy quickly glances over to Beryl and Khalia, who are both still fighting their slimes. Her girls are handling themselves rather well, but it doesn’t look like they’ll be finished fighting by the time this new big blue slime shows up... “You two might want to hurry up a bit.”

Beryl briefly looks back towards the barbarian, her blue-green eyes immediately going wide. With newfound haste, she hurriedly turns her attention back to the muddy slime in front of her, sending more sharp gusts of wind slicing through the thing in an attempt to kill it quicker.

But it still doesn’t look like she’ll be done with it in time.

And, to be completely honest, Krvavy doubts that her girls could handle a slime this large. Even at a distance, with more of its mass continuing to swell up from the pit below, this slime absolutely towers over the barbarian. And, like all other slimes they’ve seen so far, it is considerably wider than it is tall.

Beryl probably wouldn’t be able to even scratch it with her wind magic, let alone cut straight through it. And Khalia would just get swallowed whole if she tried ripping it apart.

So... it looks like Krvavy will have to handle it herself. Hopefully that is something she is even capable of doing. Otherwise they’ll have to hope that they can run faster than this slime... She really shouldn’t have complained about not getting to fight...

Her Soulbound weapon becomes translucent for a split second before fading away, leaving Krvavy armed with only a lantern as she steps forwards and takes a deep breath. Heat wells up within her chest, growing more and more intense as she holds the stale air of this ruin in her lungs. Pangs of discomfort flow through her body. Her core pulses.

Flickering light leaks through her pale skin, climbing above her collarbone and filling her throat with a bright, crimson hue. The pressure filling her lungs becomes too much to bear. Without warning, her jaw snaps open into a wordless scream. Hissing flames burst free from her mouth, warping the air around her with their heat.

1,973.66 Damage dealt to [Huge Blue Slime]

1,257.29 Damage dealt to [Huge Blue Slime]

The brutal blood-red blaze bashes against the amorphous blue blob, burning into it with a loud sizzling sound as steam begins to fill the runs. Within a matter of seconds the slime is completely obscured by a flood of crimson flames and a mist of its own evaporating body.

800.93 Damage dealt to [Huge Blue Slime]

510.22 Damage dealt to [Huge Blue Slime]

325.03 Damage dealt to [Huge Blue Slime]

[Huge Blue Slime] has been slain!

+2,250 Experience

Krvavy staggers back slightly, painfully coughing out some black smoke that tastes and smells of burnt flesh. Her mana is completely drained from a single spell that lasted less than twenty seconds, but at least it was effective. Though she would like using Blazing Breath a lot more if it didn’t hurt so much...

“My dearest love! Are ya okay!?” Beryl worriedly rushes towards the barbarian, pressing up against her Draconic lover.

“Y-yeah...” Krvavy chokes out, each breath stinging slightly in her sore throat. “I’m good...”

The air around them slowly clears of steam, revealing quite a few small blue slimes slowly oozing towards them, having risen up or merged with the puddles that Krvavy failed to fully burn away.

“Tsk.” The tanned tomboy of an Elf clicks her tongue in annoyance. “Khalia, clean this up.” She orders the Orc. “Be careful not ta get too close ta the edge.”

Khalia simply grunts as she throws herself at these new slimes, stomping the blue blobs beneath her feet and slashing apart the ‘bigger’ ones – which barely even reach halfway up her shin in height – with her sharp claws.

Beryl holds a waterskin up to the Drakling’s lips, letting Krvavy drink her fill. “We should really leave this place now. Ya made quite the show there, and Ah’ve no doubt tha’ more slimes like tha’ one will’ve been drawn by yer flames.”

“Yeah...” The barbarian coughs a few times and clears her throat, already feeling a bit better. “You’re right.” She tells her Elf, gently pushing the emptied waterskin aside. “But... I’m pretty sure we’re more than halfway around this place... So we should continue along the path instead of turning back. It’ll be faster that way..”

The Wood Elf frowns slightly at that, before clicking her tongue in reluctant agreement. “Khalia, ya done over there? Good, we’re leavin’.”

With that Beryl immediately turns and continues along the path, expecting the other two to follow.

Krvavy reaches a hand up to the glowing quartz crystal dangling around her neck. She doesn’t exactly need it for the small bit of light it makes, as the lantern in her hand is more than bright enough, so perhaps it’d be best to drain it now...?

They quickly pass by cell after cell, hardly bothering to glance through the bars as they rush through the ruin. It takes the barbarian around a minute to safely drain the small crystal, absorbing just over a hundred points of mana. Hopefully she won’t have to cast Blazing Breath again so soon, but at least she now has the mana for it if she really needs to.

Beryl abruptly jumps to the side as they hurry along the curved pathway. “Above!” She calls out, swinging her paddle and sending a gust of wind slicing up at a falling slime, cutting it in two.

Krvavy’s Soulbound weapon immediately manifests in her hand and, without any hesitation, she swings it down at the muddy brown blob in front of her.

82.5 Damage dealt to [Small Brown Slime, Left]

The large axehead barely hits the ground before the barbarian twists it to the side, using the flat side to squish down onto the slime.

26.33 Damage dealt to [Small Brown Slime, Left]

[Small Brown Slime, Left] has been slain!

+50 Experience

“Rrrrgh...!” Khalia angrily growls as she stomps her pawed foot down onto the other half, splattering it into nothingness. “Not like these... No fun...” She grumbles out, though it isn’t quite clear if she means slimes in general or just these little ones... Both, most likely.

“Come on.” Beryl clicks her tongue as she grabs onto Krvavy’s arm. “No dillydallyin’.”

A part of the barbarian would just love to stick around and fight a few more slimes, no matter how tedious that may be. She got over two thousand experience from that big slime and somehow didn’t level up, so she must be really close now...

But her sweet berry doesn’t want to stay here any longer than they need to. And her precious puppy isn’t having much fun either. So no point in annoying the both of them, while also risking the quartz they’ve collected in the process.

If only Krvavy had a more effective way to kill these slimes that didn’t use up all of her mana...

In a surprisingly short amount of time, the rusted and warped metal door appears at the edge of their light. But leaving this place isn’t that simple. Oozing out from the doorway is yet another muddy looking slime, its presence completely blocking their escape. Beryl exasperatedly sighs upon seeing it.

“Ach... Let’s just kill this one quickly...” The Elf unhappily grumbles out, completely done with having to deal with these things.

Before the barbarian can say a thing, Beryl lunges forwards and swings her wooden paddle at the amorphous blob, sending forth a sharp gust of wind. The Wood Elf clicks her tongue and points to one half of the freshly chopped slime, prompting Khalia to rush in and attack it.

Not wanting to be completely left out, Krvavy casually approaches the fight. She doesn’t want to get in the way of her girls, so rather than jumping in she instead looks for an opening. But that doesn’t seem to be necessary, as Beryl cuts her slime in half and sends a large part of it bouncing towards the barbarian with a gust of wind. How thoughtful of the Elf.

65.7 Damage dealt to [Chunk of a Brown Slime]

45.9 Damage dealt to [Chunk of a Brown Slime]

23.5 Damage dealt to [Chunk of a Brown Slime]

Krvavy squishes the slime beneath the flat of her Soulbound weapon’s axehead. It isn’t the most exciting way to fight, but it works. She just has to keep pressing down and flattening it until the thing is spread out enough that it fades away.

31.3 Damage dealt to [Chunk of a Brown Slime]

17.6 Damage dealt to [Chunk of a Brown Slime]

[Chunk of a Brown Slime] has been slain!

+75 Experience

The barbarian breathes out as the muddy liquid gradually disappears, before perking up as a new notification pops into her vision.

Level Up! You have reached Level 16. As a Drakling blessed by a divine power, you have 5 attribute points to allocate and have gained +2 to Might & Toughness. If not allocated by the time you fall asleep it will be done automatically.

+1 Divine Favour, for growing in strength.

Hey, she wasn’t actually expecting that to happen, but she is definitely not going to complain. Guess she really was close to levelling up. Sadly now isn’t the time to really focus on that though. Even if she really wants to allocate her stat points and get that new trait right away...

Looking up from the quickly fading remnants of the slime in front of her, the barbarian sees that both of her girls are finishing up their fights as well. She softly bites the inside of her cheek. While this wasn’t the best test of Khalia’s combat prowess, coming here was still far from a waste of time.

Besides the bag full of quartz on her back, this whole outing showed Krvavy that her Were-Beast will not be a liability in combat, even with the much more berserker focused build that Khalia has going on. Granted, that might change in a more stressful fight or if she goes up against something smarter than a literal brainless blob, but still. The fact that she can fight alongside others, follow orders, and keep herself under control just fine is a big reassurance to the barbarian.

Beryl unhappily taps her paddle on the ground as the slime in front of her fully fades away. “Let us finally leave this place, my dearest love.” She tiredly sighs, turning around and rather cautiously passing through the doorway.

“Ahhhh... Ta be under the open sky again...” The tanned and tomboyish Elf happily breathes out, carelessly tossing her wooden paddle of a weapon aside and stretching her arms wide. “Ah never want ta use tha’ thing again...”

“I thought you did quite well with it.” Krvavy honestly states, reaching over to stroke her Orc’s hair.

“Ach. It made me clumsy.” Beryl clicks her tongue and sits down on a large rock, taking a moment to adjust her sandals. “Ah am not made fer fightin’ wit’ somethin’ like tha’. Ah don’t ‘ave the proficiencies fer those kinds o’ weapons like ya do.”

“Well, you helped make the thing.” The barbarian simply shrugs her shoulders. “Besides, you didn’t really need to come along.”

The Wood Elf glares up at Krvavy, her bright blue-green eyes narrowed into a withering gaze. “Ah’m not goin’ ta just let ya go inta a place like tha’ by yerself.” Both Elf and Drakling briefly glance at Khalia, prompting Beryl to softly sigh. “Ya know wha’ Ah mean...”

Krvavy smiles and she sits down beside Beryl, placing the unlit lantern on the ground. “You did a good job.” She reassures. “But if you’re not happy with that... then I’m sure you’ll figure out something better for next time.”

“Tha’ next time ‘ad better not be too soon.” The tanned tomboy stares at her Draconic lover with a stern and unimpressed look on her face. “And Ah’d better get more o’ a ‘eads up too. A couple hours isn’t quite enough time ta figure out ‘ow Ah’m goin’ ta deal wit’ some slimes. Ach... Ah can’t even use vines or my Nature magic on those pests... Tha’d be no different ta just feedin’ them...”

“Yeah, don’t worry. I’m not planning on coming back here for quite some time.” Krvavy leans to the side and gently slides her arms out of the backpack. Beryl seems content to sit here and have a bit of a rest before they head back home, so she might as well make herself comfortable too. “It’s just too much of a pain to kill those annoying blobs...”

Khalia wordlessly takes her place by the barbarian’s other side, pressing up against Krvavy in a rather clingy way. A faint smile creeps onto the Wood Elf’s face as she slowly mirrors the Orc, resting her head on Krvavy’s shoulder.

A sense of peace fills the barbarian, and she almost doesn’t want this to end. Sadly, she is about to interrupt it. “I levelled up, by the way.” Krvavy states with some reluctance. “From that last slime you tossed my way.”

“Wonderful.” Beryl smiles back, letting the tension and stress that she felt while they were inside those ruins fade away as she runs a hand down Krvavy’s muscled thigh. “Ya ‘ave tha’ new trait now?”

“Yup.” The barbarian replies as she puts all five points into Composure.

It looks like she has finally filled out the section for traits. She kind of wonders what will happen when she gets her next one. Will it just grow bigger and push her skills further down? Will it change so that there are more columns? Will the layout of the whole sheet get shuffled around? Guess that Krvavy just has to wait and see.

Now, what does her newest trait do?

Composed Conqueror I: Increases Composure by 2.5%, greatly strengthens the effect it has on Total Mana, and improves your ability to handle excessive anger & lust. Associated attribute = Composure.

It is a bit lackluster, to be honest. But it is pretty much exactly what she wanted, so Krvavy can’t really complain. A part of her doesn’t exactly like how it specifies anger and lust, as there are other emotions she’d like to have more control over as well. Fear, for instance. So she can only hope that future levels include more emotions.

Krvavy feels a slight prodding sensation at the edge of her awareness and, knowing that it is simply just Beryl trying to Inspect her, she lets it through.

The Elf happily hums as she looks over Krvavy’s stats. “Do ya know wha’ ya’re goin’ ta go fer next? Wit’ yer attributes, Ah mean.”

“Not really, no.” The barbarian replies after a moment, having to resist the urge to shrug. Both of her girls are resting their heads on her shoulders, and she doesn’t want to disturb either of their cuddling hugs. “I’ll definitely put a single point into both Might and Toughness so that I can get them both to fifty. That should be fun. But beyond that... Maybe Perception because it already has some points in it? Or maybe Rationality for more mana?”

“Not considerin’ Charisma or Allure, my dearest love?”

Krvavy raises an eyebrow and looks to her Elf, waiting for Beryl to give some sort of explanation.

“Ya ‘ave four girls.” The Wood Elf dryly states. “Gettin’ more Charisma could ‘elp ya better deal wit’ Thea, among other things. And none o’ us would complain about ya raisin’ yer Allure.”

“Hmm...” Krvavy takes a moment to consider that. There is an appeal to increasing her social stats, but that is kind of on the same level as upgrading Superior Stud: it seems fun, but doesn’t exactly feel worth it right now. Granted, improving her social stats would also increase her health, stamina, and mana, so it is definitely more useful than a sex themed trait... “Well, I’ll think about it. No need to decide right now.”

Beryl simply smiles, happy that her Draconic lover is at least listening to her.

The three of them remain sitting there in silence, content with just enjoying each others’ presence in front of the entrance to the buried ruin. But, sadly, the warmth and the peace of this slight bit of cuddling can’t last forever.

With a reluctant sigh, Beryl suddenly pulls away from the barbarian. “Tha’ is enough o’ a break. We’d best get goin’ if we want ta get ‘ome while there is still light out.”

Khalia grumbles unhappily as she is forced to let go of her Mate, but she ultimately listens and lets the barbarian put the backpack back on.

“Alright,” Krvavy pats her precious puppy on the head, “let’s go home.”