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Chapter 15: Safety

  Alice peered around as she climbed into the chest, the first thing she noticed was the glass, there was glass all over that had shattered against the chest, most likely when she had tipped it over, but that meant... she pressed her foot down into the liquid, an overtly sweet smell of nectar was permeating within the chest. She supposed it must be... right? Well its not like she had a choice.

  Alice leaned down and began to lap up the liquid, she instantly began to cough and gag. It tasted like cough syrup without flavoring but that meant it was healing right? She kept lapping at the liquid, forcing herself to drink it. As the liquid flowed through her body she felt her flesh knitting itself closed, she gasped as her senses allowed her to actively feel as the liquid flowed through her body as if it was alive, its consistency becoming sticky as it grabbed onto her rib that was pushing out of her back and pulling it back in, shoving it into place and regenerating the muscle on it. Did people really use these things? It was... uncomfortable. Like a living being inside of her going about restoring her body using a bit of itself every time it did.

  

  Alice breathed a sigh of relief, she had escaped the immediate threat of death, now there were just all the other threats of death around her. She almost just left the chest, after all it was for things much bigger than her; it's not like she could use anything here. But then she noticed it, two things really. There was an odd necklace, it was lined with bones and had a perfectly smooth black ball on it. Something about it... intrigued her.

  The other object was a book, she decided to investigate them both moving to the book she went to push it open when she got an alert.

  

  

  

  ...

  ....

  Maybe it was just a-

  

  Alice couldn't even see what the skill was! But skills couldn't be bad, it just opened up more options for her. She decided to accept it, trusting that nothing bad would happen.

  

  Voice of the noble? Hm, well it did make a little sense, she didn't quite talk as much as she did squeak. Alice then turned her gaze to the necklace, she moved over to it tapping the pure black ball with a claw.

  

  

  "Ugh! None of this makes any sense! What do you mean bind? I'm a bat!"

  Alice squeaked out in frustration, she was so lost and confused and-

  

  Wait what? It couldn't be...

  "Did you... just respond to me?"

  

  This entire time... she could just ask questions? She just had to actually say them. That made... a bit of sense. Alice had done very little actual talking aside from when she was with Xana ever since she was reborn here.

  "Can you remove the binding?"

  

  Alice thought about it, it's not like she was planning on giving it to someone else. She decided to bind the strange necklace to herself, once she did it shrunk down in size and she was able to easily slip it around her neck.

  "So... how do I know what it does?"

  

  "So without a skill to know what it does, its just a rock around my neck. Great."

  This time there was no response from the System.

  Alice decided she had spent enough time in the chest and crawled out finding herself in a wide room that looked similar to the one that the humans had been fighting in, however there was no trace of their battle. Alice wished she had been watching now to see what had happened.

  Alice began to leave towards one of the four hallways connecting to the room before she paused, her claw just about to press down on a stone when her [Supernatural Sense] went off. That stone was.. dangerous? She took a closer look, and then used [Echolocation], the reverb returned and told her everything she needed to know. These stones had traps. She'd need to be careful, she considered flying but it was probably best to conserve her energy.

  She felt better now, the things here were scary but she had more of a chance of defending herself than she did prior. Now she just had to figure out how to get out of here...

  The hallways felt even more endless now, before she had a sense of how much time had passed but now without a constant countdown she had no clue how long she had been wandering for, just that it felt like this place would never end, she had been able to avoid conflict thus far because every time she turned down a hallway and her [Supernatural Sense] warned her she moved the other way. However now Alice was in quite the bind, she was stuck with three paths forward and all gave her a sense of danger.

  She wished her senses were more... clear, she had no idea if one was more dangerous than the other only that all held danger. She sighed and decided to just pick one at random hoping it wouldn't lead her to certain death.

  Alice flew up, she figured it'd be more safe to be in the air when approaching danger as she flew the nudge of danger continued to pulsate at her, a constant reminder to not let her guard down, and then she heard it, the sound of sludge rubbing against the stone, seeping into it and out of it. It didn't take long for her to find the source.

  A massive slime was sliding across, seemingly aimless as it constantly moved forward, Alice watched it carefully, she felt safe due to her position in the air above the slime wasn't big enough to strike her, more so flatly moving across like thick water.

  Alice let out a sigh of relief, she had no idea how she'd fight something like this, it had no actual body to damage she'd probably just- BOOM! She hadn't expected it, a massive spear of slime had shot out of the Slime smashing into the ceiling just next to her, small spikes flowing across the Slimes body like a wave. It was... angry? Hostile. And she had no idea how to fight it. Great.

  Alice began to fly away, she just had to escape- BOOM BOOM! More Slime Spears shot out, cutting off her escape, she tried flying the other way and the same happened, she was trapped, every time she tried to get away it would cut her off with those stupidly fast spears. For something that slid around so slowly its attacks were frighteningly fast. Luckily now that she was no longer dying Alice had naturally regained some Mana.

  Her [Weak Shadow Spike] proved useless, it would rip through the slime's body creating a hole that would just be filled and Alice couldn't tell if it had diminished at all! She began just flying around dodging attack after attack, it was fast but not so fast she couldn't avoid the attacks. But she was sure to mess up, she had to find... a way... huh, the slime was comprised of two things, the thick sludge like body of slime and what looked to be some kind of core in the center. If she could just... focus.

  STRIKE! Her spike stabbed into the core, well almost, the core had moved but the spike had still struck it slicing the side of it, which caused the slime to pulsate, shockwaves going along the slimey mass. Angry shockwaves full of spikes flowed as it ramped up its attack, but Alice had enough Mana to mass cast her [Weak Shadow Spike], she began casting it in rapid succession until... the slime shook, shook, BOOM! An explosion of slime went everywhere, not dangerous but rather the entire body violently combusted splattering it all over.

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  Alice cringed as it slid down her fur, she shook herself a few times, flicking it off, and then she paused, tilting her head at the slime on the ground, making her ears droop to the side. The core was still there, cracked but slime was slowly moving towards it. She moved forward and bit down, sinking her fangs into the core that was twice the size of her head. And she began to drink.

  

  

  

  

  

  Alice blinked... a prize?

  "What kind of prize?"

  

  "What's a Prize Box?"

  Alice paused... that could work? It would be useful at least. She focused on the yes of the original prompt.

  

  "Wait [Inventory]?"

  

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