Chapter 5
A High-Ranked Slime

Once Alexander realized what was going on, he immediately attempted to resurface, but as soon as he took a turn upwards, it seemed that whatever was trying to ambush on him took action.

Suddenly, the water around Alexander changed composition into an almost solid state, resembling cement, and it was pressing on every inch of his body.

Immediately after, confusion and panic overwhelmed his thoughts as he tried to struggle out, but he couldn't move a single muscle out of place. What was going on?!

"What is your purpose in the land of my brethren, human?"

Across every corner around him, an apathetic feminine voice echoed out as if the water itself was speaking to him, which confirmed one of Alexander's guesses that it was truly a slime who accomplished this.

But there was no way that a slime would notice him just like that, and even if they did, they couldn't possibly just wrap around him in such a large body of water!

If any slime tried to expand in here and merge with this amount of water, they would die because their bodies would be way too diluted to get back together!

But it didn't make sense! Any average slime would die if they did this, but at the same time, only a slime could achieve this kind of feat… Unless… It was not an average slime.

"Speak!" The voice ordered with lots of impatience, bringing Alexander out of his stunned state. That's right, this isn't an occasion when he can just stay idle and think, but how is he supposed to say anything when his jaw has been locked by the slime's restraints?

"HMPH!" So, to let the slime understand that he couldn't speak, he hummed loudly in hope that she could be lenient and let him breathe once again.

And fortunately, that's what happened after a few seconds. Alexander's body had suddenly been pushed upwards until it reached the surface, and once his nose and mouth were out of the water, he could finally inhale fresh air.

While he recovered his breath, his body had been lifted even higher until all of his back and both his arms were showing, although that's as far as things went. As for his legs and hands, they were all still under the water, restricted by the slime in the water.

And once any movement of his stopped, a mass of jelly gathered in front of him and grew upwards, to the point where he had to twist his head in an uncomfortable manner to see the top.

Once the mass of slime reached a certain height, it started to take a humanoid shape of a woman, just like the slimes below the peak, with also an unusually edgy hairstyle that covered half of her face. However, this slime looked way more mature than the others.

In comparison, while the slimes around the mountain looked between 10 to 20 years old, this one seemed to be around 30 or 35 years old.

And unlike them, she also grew a pair of short dark blue horns on the top of her head, and a crimson jewel appeared on her forehead. She also has some dark tribal tattoos over the right side of her body, despite being entirely made of jelly.

There's no doubt about it, this was a high-ranking slime, one which didn't conform to a normal slime either, judging from her apathetic and overbearing behavior.

"Do not make me repeat myself, human." The slime told Alexander with a frozen-cold voice, which managed to make him flinch at the sheer contempt he could feel from her.

He knew that he had to answer her fast, or he'll be a goner!

"I-I was just trying to catch a fish!" Alexander replied to the slime just as she requested, but apparently, that wasn't enough of an answer, since now he felt something very sharp and very hard poking his throat.

He didn't dare to look down to see what it was, because he knew that if he bent his head down, whatever was poking him would most likely pierce through his neck. Still, that didn't mean that he wasn't panicking at all!

Even though he was completely wet, he could feel cold sweat trailing down his head, and his throat was getting dry out of pure anxiousness. His body was trembling, and despite his arms feeling weak, he didn't loosen his hold onto himself for the slightest bit. He couldn't permit himself to do that, or it would spell certain death for him.

This was the first time he had been so close to death in his whole life… And it felt extremely uncomfortable, to the point where he was shivering from the sheer fear.

"Do you take me for a fool?" The slime rhetorically asked, before Alexander felt his Seal of Nothingness being pried off from his hand, and saw it moving through the slime's body before it reached her hand, which she had shown back to him.

"Someone who carries this sort of thing wouldn't come here just to feed themselves."

The only visible red eye that the slime had glared into Alexander's face while murderous intent practically oozed out of her body, which completely stopped his trembling through sheer nervousness, and then she asked again. "Answer me truthfully, why did you come here?"

"I… I was really trying to catch a fish… Not to eat it, of course!" Alexander replied in the same manner as before, but since he seemed to have more to add, the slime didn't do anything yet.

"A man from Iliasville got kidnapped by some slimes from here, so I wanted to try to catch some fish and trade it for information from a local slime, to know who could have thought about kidnapping him." He didn't have truly hostile intentions to begin with, so he just spoke the truth.

The slime remained silent for a moment before she started to speak again. "What's next?"

"Well… Once I know who did it, I'll just go there, take Hans with me, and leave immediately."

"What about the slimes who kidnapped him? What are you going to do about them?"

At this point, Alexander had an inkling of an idea of where this slime was trying to get to. She probably wanted to assess whether he is a threat to her brethren or not.

But it was with that realization that the fear for his life got even more intense than before.

Judging from her attitude, he could see that she didn't like him at all, so would she even believe him if he said the truth? Or will she automatically assume that he is lying?

Humans and monsters aren't generally in a good relationship, especially after what happened in this century, but while there is still a considerable amount of people around the world who manage to keep the past from clouding their present judgement, this slime might be one of the monsters that hate humankind as a whole.

If she is truly like that, then wouldn't he be a dead man whether he shows his true intentions of leaving peacefully or trying to ease her hatred with friendly praises?!

You know, the more I write, the less this story feels like a fanfiction... But yeah, here it is, and instead of Alice, I'm just going to shoot myself on the foot and introduce... Erubetie!

Why is she here near the little old village of Iliasville? You'll have to find that out either by yourself, or by reading the story.

Anyway, there is no review to talk about either, so I'll just go with the salutations directly.

As always, put this fanfiction among your favorites, share your thoughts in the review section, and see you guys tomorrow!