Bouncing like a ball, Jack escaped from Jeanne who couldn't grab his slippery form. He tried to go back to where they entered. But Jeanne was getting too close to grabbing his black core in the middle of the slime.
There, a hole small enough that Jeanne wouldn't stick her hand in it.
"Get back here you little heathen!"
Jack hopped inside the crack like Jerry from a certain cartoon escaping Tom. The priestess searched around for him. But finally gave up.
"Ha! Outsmarted by a talking blob."
Catching his breath, he had a smile on his face. Finally he felt in control again. He was no longer the little slime getting carried by a priestess.
Then he heard voices. Someone was there next to Jeanne. He went to take a peek but the clattering of tin cans echoed and then a hiss that sent shivers up his non-existent spine. He wasn't alone in this hole.
A rat. It wasn't a normal one. This one was big as a cat. Its hairless tail thrashing and whiskers twitching with aggression.
"Shit."
Jack's squeaky curse reverberated against the damp brick.
Rat vs Slime. A match made in the lowest circles of some disgusting purgatorial hellscape.
The rat's beady eyes, black and soulless, fixed on him. The best defense is a good offense.
"Slime throw!"
A pathetic droplet arced through the darkness and splatted against the beast. The rat didn't even flinch. The droplet simply added to the glistening sheen of its filthy fur.
[Excellent, only 1199 more attacks of the same strength, and you might defeat it.]
"Oh, screw you, system," Jack shot back.
A lunge.
It came impossibly fast, the giant rat's form a streak of brown and white. Instinct, a raw, primal thing he didn't know slimes possessed, took over. Jack didn't think; he simply let himself go limp, pouring all his mass into the thinnest possible layer of flesh against the grimy stone.
Once again he used slime throw at the creature's eyes. The rat's advance didn't waver.
[The monster is temporary blind, but its hearing and smell are excellent. And Host's mana is 1/3]
While Jack played dodgeball with death, Jeanne was not idle outside the hole.
A man clad in armor was standing on the other side of the mini sewage-river in the sewer. The paladin drew his sword and jumped over the river without making a sound.
"Keith."
Jeanne's voice quivered yet she still readied herself.
"Just turn yourself in Jen, this whole mess will be much cleaner if you cooperate," he said.
He looked like a knight in shining armor minus the shining.
Her answer was a holy dagger materializing in her hand. The light that came off the dagger illuminated her face which had a cold, detached look.
"Really Jen? I don't want to hurt you," Keith's face softened.
Jeanne growled.
"You already did," she gestured around her, "You said my dreams belonged in the sewer."
The paladin sighed. Pushing off his legs, lunging, he swung his sword.
"No one leaves the church."
---
Back with Jack. His slime body grew in a few ounces from his sweat. This wasn't working. There were objects lying around but without hands, he couldn't pick them up.
Hearing the fight outside and the blinding lights, he wanted her to win but he was also a bit scared she'd win and come find him.
As Jack listened, the fight was more one sided than he'd hope for. He decided to kill this rat and find another way out, escaping from the church would be the best option. They already think the priestess was a heretic, so who knows what they would think about a talking slime.
"Ok lets try this."
He pushed himself near a crumbly piece of brick. His goal was to get the Rat to lunge into the brick and knock itself unconscious. Then he can kill it. Maybe even level up.
The rat's pink nose twitched, catching the new scent of Jack's movement. He braced himself, ready to flatten against the wall. But the creature was smarter than he anticipated. It didn't go for the lunge.
"The fucker's toying with me."
Preparing another slime throw, this one aimed for the rat's snout, he threw it.
Direct hit.
But the beast shook it off with a disgusted shake of its head, its beady eyes now burning with irritation.
Jack had a new plan: a weapon.
Rusty nails were littered around this rat-hole. He maneuvered himself close to them. As expected, the rat, smelling blood, charged.
Like a pancake, he dodged it by flattening himself.
The nails were disgusting and reeking of tetanus but he wrapped his tiny, slimy body around them. Finally he held it up with his mouth.
[Skill: Weapon Mimicry Level 1 learned.]
The rat lunged, its teeth closing on the slime. It got a taste of rusty metal. The rat yelped and jumped back.
It bled. The nail worked.
Pushing his luck, he lunged again, a small, green projectile armed with a rusty nail. He pierced the beast's hind leg. A few more brutally one sided jabs at the creature and its squeaks died down.
[Rat is defeated.]
[XP Gained: 25.]
[Host has leveled up. Level 2]
[Stat points available: 3]
Leveling up felt like an orgasm for his soul. A tingling wave started from his core, pushing outwards and expanding his form. He was no longer the size of a peanut. Most importantly he felt a bit more powerful yet he still decided to put points in his weakest stat.
[Strength: 1]
"Lets plus 3 that."
[Stat: Strength: 4]
Picking up the nail with his mouth felt easier. After that he checked on the fight outside. He peeked his small head inside but made the mistake of revealing his core.
But Jeanne had already learned from her misake.
"Gotcha!"
A bloody hand covered in holy magic yanked him out of the hole. Cuts were all over Jeanne's body and Keith was floating with his belly pointing upwards in the sewage river.
"Is he dead?" Jack asked, eyeing the floating body.
The priestess did not answer him, instead she shook the slime like he was a dirty piece of cloth.
Dizziness washed over Jack. She pointed a bloody, trembling finger at him.
"You little shit," she stammered, her face pale and streaked with sweat and grime. The blood from a cut on her forehead dripped onto his slime body. He absorbed it and tasted it.
Guilt. He felt guilty seeing her like this.
Just as he was about to get a sermon from her about loyalty and faith, Jeanne's expression changed from fury to dawning horror. More paladins were closing in.
She was eyeing the sewage river.
"Wait... No!"
Jack said as he correctly guessed her idea.
"I'LL TASTE EVERYTHING!"
With a determined set to her jaw, she ignored him and dove into the putrid river with him held tight. He closed himself to avoid as much as the filth from entering him but that didn't work as much.
Then something bizarre happened. Jeanne's holy magic, usually a pristine gold, was now a murky, brownish aura around them, shielding them from the filth, not all of them because it was designed to shield their aura from being seen through.
Holia city's sewer system led all the way to a lake in the Uryen Forest. After an hour a head popped out of the water, halfway to the lake.
She took out Jack from her hand.
The blue slime was now brown.
"I'll never forgive you."