"You! You can understand us, right?! Help us!" The blue haired beastkin, called out to Alice's surprise, which made her jump and tear her eyes off of the sight of the man being slowly crushed to death.
"What are you talking about Anno! There's no one- Are you talking to a fucking bat! Oh you have GOT to be kidding me!" The man who had been wielding two hammers called out.
Alice turned and began to flee, she couldn't help these people she was as he said just a bat, it had taken everything to kill a single slime! And now there was tons of them! She was just... a... child.
Not this memory... not right now
Alice had just been a child when her older sister died. Just a child, thats what everyone had said during the funeral to Alice that always came off as them reminding themselves that she shouldn't be blamed. Just a shame that their places weren't reversed. Yeah... it would have been better if Alice had died instead of Belle, she wasn't smart like Belle was, wasn't creative like her either.
The fire that night had developed so quickly, Alice had just wanted... just wanted to make some Hot Chocolate she didn't... she didn't know she was using the stove wrong. That's what she told herself, in an attempt to hide that she was blaming herself. But when it came down to it, ha now it made sense. No wonder she had taken so quickly to killing in this new world. She had murdered her older sister, set that house ablaze and... ran. Ran as Belle called her name. She had... it didn't make it better that it was a mistake, it didn't make it better that it wasn't intentional. It didn't make it BETTER that she was told it wasn't her fault!
Alice just had to run again, if she ran and came back she could search their bodies, if she ran she...
If I run they'll definitely die
Damnit! They would kill me first chance!
Why did she have to care! She was... she was a Monster she wasn- she did care. They were human, she deep down was human no matter how much this body, how much this world messed with her. She turned her body around and flew back, flying into the room, as she began to squeak at the humans.
"Okay okay I'm going to try and save you just trust me!"
They stared at her with disbelief, but then she heard crushing words.
"Great now a Bat is squeaking at us as slimes kill us! So helpful!" The man who had been complaining spat.
Of course they couldn't understand her she wasn't she wasn't Human, but she would still try to help, it was... it was the right thing to do? No, that wasn't it. If she could help them... yeah maybe she wasn't a bad person, maybe she wasn't a murderer. She could... she could be a good person she could... be a hero!
The moment she thought to cast [Weak Shadow Grove] information from the System invaded her head, some spells were simple and could be casted without chanting, but others needed to be chanted, incantations could be shortened with mastery over the magic but the stronger the spell the longer the chant. And even with mastery using the chant would empower it further.
"[Let night fall over this land, may the garden consume ye and a great black tree grow from your bodies, Shadow Grove!]"
The floor of the room got much darker as Spikes began to grow out of the shadows stabbing towards the Slime cores; she was able to get strong stabs on two of them, but the rest had been able to dodge only getting nicked. But that was fine, spikes continued to strike upwards at their cores.
"Did... did it cast magic? On the slimes? It's... Is it helping us?" The man with the bow questioned.
One of the humans seemed surprised that was fine, surprise was better than angry.
"We need to save Jasper! Bat! Can you bring me that bag over there!" Anno asked.
Alices ears twitched, she wanted a bag? Alice scanned the room until she saw a pack, she looked down directly at the blue haired one Anno they had called her?
"Don't worry I'll get it!"
She squeaked at the woman, hoping she'd at least understand it as a yes. Alice flew off towards the bag and instantly realized an issue. She couldn't lift it, and now a Slime had honed in on her. Bubbling sludge slowly flowing towards her, she had to do something. Yes of course, this Anno girl did not just want the bag, she wanted something inside it. Alice ripped open the bag with her claws, staring inside and confirming her suspicion. There were potions inside, there were... mana potions she had to assume based on the way they pulsated with magical energy.
She could bring her the potions sure, let her cast another one of those fire spells. But that wouldn't get Alice experience. It wouldn't help Alice's growth. She looked upon the slimes and began to cast once more, chanting out the incantation for [Weak Shadow Grove] and again, she burned her Mana completely dry and then bit down into the cork of a potion and pulled it out, letting the liquid flow out as she drank it with her fangs as she would blood.
That was an interesting prompt but she ignored it for now, she kept casting over and over burning her Mana like fuel, if she did enough spikes she could kill them all! A garden of black spikes had sprouted, ripping through slime stabbing at cores, the only one she avoided was the one with the man inside it, she couldn't attack it without hitting him and she wasn't... she wasn't going to... the slimes had given a lot of experience... How much would a human give?
Alice considered it, he was already severely damaged who could say he'd survive... she could just... no! She couldn't cross that line! They were human like her, if she began killing just for experience sake she'd be a true monster.
"See! I told you it's not just a normal bat! It can cast magic and its... I think its drinking my Mana Potions!"
Anno was shouting at the two men, but Alice ignored that she kept casting, she had cut the slimes numbers by half in an exceedingly short time, but now she was having to dodge attacks from a Slime that had reached her. She couldn't get a good hit on it, but then an idea struck her. She rapid casted three chantless spells. Two [Weak Shadow Spikes] on the left and right of the Slime causing it to move its core into a single spot as she casted [Shadow Shot]! Her shot landed true and shattered the core.
She swooped back into the bag, and began to drink more of the potion, she had drained one dry and was on her second when she got the notification.
Alice was wondering she had felt so sick from the taste, that explained it, a warning sign you were approaching overuse of said potions. There were only three slimes now though and the Humans had begun to move. She was cautious but she went to bite down on Slime cores, she grumbled a bit when she saw the Humans smashing some but it made sense she couldn't drain each one in time to stop reforming.
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But when they realized she was actively finishing off Slimes they moved, Anno going for her bag and the others pulling their friend free and moving him away from the three slimes that were left. As the group finished off the three slimes Alice stared at the notifications she had gotten.
She shook her head at that, now was not the time for it, she then looked at the notification that was currently golden before her.
Okay another goal to add to her ever growing list of things she needed to do. Amazing, great. Alice, while excited by the idea of such a skill, was also just overwhelmed, however she did not get any time to pity herself as she acutely became aware that the Humans were watching her.
"So what do we do? Should we kill it?"
Alice leaped back in surprise, watching the man who had been wielding two hammers carefully.
"Don't be crazy, Callum! We would be dead without it!" Anno chastised, but even she looked at Alice with hesitation.
"Yeah you can't just kill me after I helped you!" Alice squeaked at them, which got different responses.
"Still it is strange that it can understand us." The one with the bow who was currently slowly feeding a health potion to the pauldron man noted.
"It doesn't actually understand us. There's no way it's just a monster." Callum commented to which Alice angrily squeaked at him in response. "Okay so that is definitely weird. How did you find a weird bat, Anno."
Anno rolled her eyes and squatted down in front of Alice. "It's weird the Great Unifier always talks about how terrible monsters are but this one is pretty cute. You can understand me, right?"
Alice thought for a moment, she couldn't converse but she could... nod.
"See! It just nodded, Bats aren't even in The Lower Dungeon, they're usually seen in the Upper Crust. Of course this one is special!" Anno said looking behind her at Callum.
Alice puffed out her chest in pride, she was special!
"It's still weird that [Inspect] doesn't work right on it." Callum commented. That was weird, [Inspect]? She didn't have that skill, but weirder still that it didn't work right on her? Whatever that meant.
"Anno, is the Unfolding Map secure?" The man with the bow asked before he kept talking. "Jasper does not have long, the Health Potions have sustained him for now but he needs a proper [Healer]. One of at least Second Advancements."
Anno shifted through her bag, pulling out the two empty Mana Potions, casting a glance at the Bat before she grabbed another, swallowing it down.
"[Let flesh knit and mend, return blood to body and give upon this land your gift oh Dark One, Close Wounds]"
A spell flowed out from Anno, it healed Jasper but he was still in very bad shape. Then Anno pulled out a piece of paper from her bag. "Yeah, it looks like it's intact... we got teleported pretty deep but we should be able to find our way to an Exit Point without too much issue."
Alice listened to them carefully, staring at the paper, an exit point so there were ways to escape this maze? She wanted to fly up and look at the map but she wasn't sure how much of a threat that would make them see her as. So instead she tried to just squeak at the woman.
"Hm? What is it?" Anno asked, looking down at her, Alice wasn't sure how to properly communicate... until it occurred to her. She looked at all the slime remains, she couldn't speak but she knew the language so she could write. She moved shifting slime around into words, simply making the word Exit.
"What that... it... it spelled something with Slime goop?"
Anno looked at Callum as he spoke then back to the slime.
"That... definitely says exit and we were just talking about an Exit Point. Are you also interested in getting out of here?" Anno asked squatting down to get at least a little more level with Alice. Alice nodded her head, was this actually her ticket out of here?
"We do need some help since Jasper is down." Anno commented looking over at Callum and the Bow Man.
They both looked at her and then Callum shrugged. "Sure we can take the crazy magic casting bat that understands and writes Turian with us."
Turian, so that's what they called their language. That was good to know.
Callum and the Bow Man carried Jasper while Anno led them with the map, Alice flying cautiously next to her now that they were a bit more accepting of her, she kept watching the map. It was... amazing. Whenever the Maze shifted it was shown on the map, as more hallways and rooms filled out on the map if any shifting moved a room the map had marked it erased that room but only updated if they were near it and most vital it showed Red Rooms which since they were getting closer and closer to one Alice could only assume that it was an Exit Point.
Anno had begun to turn down a hallway when Alice suddenly got a hint of danger from her [Supernatural Sense] she quickly began to squeak at her, the beastkin looking at her curiously.
"What's up Alice?"
That gave her pause, but then she realized she had been [Inspect]'d that must have been what that feeling was when she was noticed back when they were fighting the skeletons. But that wasn't important right now, she moved over to the map and pointed at the hallway that she had begun to turn down and shook her head, pointing at another hallway that while was a longer route she sensed no danger from.
Anno studied her for a bit, an eyebrow raised before she spoke. "You don't want to go down this hallway... and want to go down that hallway instead?"
Alice nodded.
"Why?"
Alice tilted her head, her ears flopping to the side slightly, she didn't know how to communicate this properly. She peered down the hallway and tried to make the most threatening squeak she could, activating [Intimidation]. Instantly Anno went for her staff before pausing.
"Did you just use a skill to make yourself threatening? That's... oh! You're saying its dangerous down the hallway?"
Alice squeaked happily nodding along, even though inwardly she was panicked because the woman had almost turned her into ash.
Anno shrugged and went down the hallway Alice had suggested. Their journey continued for some time, Alice would occasionally suggest a different route when her senses warned her of danger and then ultimately they found their way to a room with Red Stone.
"Finally, that took forever..."
Callum complained, but Anno rolled her eyes smacking his head with her staff.
"And we didn't run into any danger because of Alice's help. You should thank her."
"Her? Alice? Right, sure the Bat has a name and a sense of gender. Whatever, thank you oh gracious bat for leading us from danger. Can you believe this Hestor?" Callum said his voice full of sarcasm.
Hestor nodded his head. "This Bat is quite talented, with such a keen sense it would be useful on future expeditions. Perhaps we should lead it to a [Monster Tamer]."
Alice instantly moved away from them, her fur standing up. They had just talked about enslaving her and turning her into a warning device right?!
"We're not doing that, Alice is clearly intelligent and probably has her own things to do. We've made it to the Exit Point. This is where we go our separate ways." Anno commented, moving over to Alice carefully.
"If you wait until another Dungeon Shift then you'll be exited somewhere other than us okay? Be careful out there and maybe don't just rush to save humans like that again. If I hadn't realized you understood us prior I don't think that would've gone as well." She explained with a smile, before her and the other three went into a circle and waited a moment before it teleported them away.
Alice indeed waited for a shift in the maze before she went in herself, keen to finally get out of this place, however after a moment the room turned purple, as the bricks glowed, and the walls closed the exits. Then it turned back to red, then purple then red, quickly shifting between colors as she suddenly heard an announcement in the dungeon.
"Error Error Error, Monster is trying to escape, Error Error Error Human is exiting, Error Error Error, System Malfunction, Error Error Error"
The lights continued to flash, getting brighter and brighter until... whoosh! Alice was teleported. But... where in the world was she now??? She looked around, she was in some sort of forest, but the trees were all Pink and Purple, and... water was floating?