Black Healer

Seeing the notifications pop up, Evelyn dismissed them before entering the chamber.

The chamber looked much the same as the hall she came from, except that this chamber was oval in shape. Looking ahead into the chamber as she went inside, Evelyn saw a large mass close to the wall at the far end.

"It looks exactly like the slime from the mural," she murmured to herself. "Like the large one that the others were gathering around…"

Evelyn took careful steps towards the large slime as her body tensed and readied itself for whatever might pop out towards her.

"Haa… This is too nerve wracking… Can there really be a cave without monsters? Isn't that kind of against tower-logic? A secret chamber should be the same as a boss room, which means that there could come monsters here at any second."

Looking around the chamber, Evelyn could see that it was bare, with the exception of the large blob-like slime.

The slime, like the one in the mural was large and light blue, with a slight light shining from it. The closer Evelyn got, the more she could feel the energy radiating from the slime in a pulsating rhythm.

As she neared it, she noticed that the low humming sound she had heard when she opened the chamber door was actually the sound of the slime before her, and the energy it was radiating.

"It hasn't moved since I came in, so it probably won't attack, right?" she asked no one in particular.

"The message did say that this was the slime creation chamber, so does that make this slime the mother of all slimes? Or is it just the creator of blue slimes, since it's blue?"

"The small slimes in the mural all had the same colour as the large slime, unless they were transparent… So, do they get their element from their mother, or the creator? But the red slimes got their colour after eating a red slime, so can they steal the elements of their defeated opponents?"

Evelyn kept quietly contemplating to herself as she slowly closed in on the large slime, keeping a vigil watch at her surroundings as she moved.

*You have discovered some small parts of the Slimes creation history and a method for slime to acquire elemental properties. +2 INT*

Seeing the message pop up before her, Evelyn scrounged her brows lightly. "Why…? Why does the system acknowledge me asking about this knowledge but not when I tried it with the plants…?"

Evelyn was happy about the increase in her stat, but the message left her more confused than anything.

"Well, there's nothing to do about it now, so guess I'll try to think about it later instead. For now, I should focus on the slime in front of me."

She was now in front of the large slime. The slime hadn't moved since she came in, except for its pulsing, making her even more apprehensive.

"Why hasn't the slime done anything? Well, here goes nothing!"

As she steeled herself, Evelyn stretched her hand towards the slime, readying herself to use steal life. Just as she was about to touch it, an energy shield buzzed and blocked her from touching it.

* Congratulation on finding the creator of the slimes on the first floor. As a reward for being the first to find and meet the creator, you will receive an award. *

* +1 egg has been added to your inventory *

Opening her inventory, Evelyn retrieved the egg and examined it. It was the size of her palm, and apart from some light purple spots, it looked like any normal egg, just slightly larger.

"Who would have guessed that slimes spawned from eggs… Or is it just this one since it is a reward? Is it even a slime inside the egg"

Trying to inspect the egg through the system, a notification pinged.

*Slightly large unidentified common egg*

Once again, sighting at the system's lack of details in its explanations, she put the egg away before she continued looking through the chamber.

To her disappointment, there was nothing else. She had tried to feel the walls for hidden doors and looked through the cracks in the floor for anything that might have been of interest, but the chamber was truly bare, with the exception of the large slime. Not even a lose stone, gravel or dust. The chamber was unexpectedly clean.

"Reality truly isn't like a novel," she once again grumbled, as she sat down. Having used a good hour scrutinizing the chamber down to the last detail, her head felt heavy.

She decided to once again examine the egg in her inventory, once again placing it in her hands.

"So," she started, trying to gather her thoughts. "The egg is a gift for being the first to discover the creator of all slimes on the first floor. Thus, it is likely that it is a slime inside the egg… It will probably hatch on its own at some point."

"Usually, with animals, the creature grows inside the egg until they are developed enough to hatch on their own, like birds or snakes. They have nutrients inside the egg that help them grow-"

"Nutrients!" she exclaimed, glad at her own realization. "Isn't that like ingredients to help us heal, or to make life force? So, could I heal it or give my own life force to make it grow faster? To help the prosses along?"

Enthusiastic at the idea, she immediately tried to use heal on the egg and a notification pinged. Evelyn hurriedly looked at the notification, excited for the possibilities of the egg hatching.

Thinking of how she would soon have a companion, even if it was a slime, she could feel her heart racing. All the possibilities, and it would make hunting so much easier. She could have the slime restrain the monsters while she used steal life, removing her biggest worry about leveling up her skill!

*The egg is already healthy and does not require healing*

Baffled, Evelyn stared at the notification in disbelief.

"…What?"

Evelyn had never seen the system refuse healing before. Even when she had healed for her parents, she had always been able to use heal. Even with people that were healthy, there was never anyone she couldn't heal more. There were always impurities in a body, no matter how healthy one was.

But here she was, for the first time, not being able to use her ability.

Having been so sure of her reasoning, Evelyn struggled to accept the notification from the system.

"But! It was supposed to work," she complained. Refusing to accept that her reasoning was flawed, she tried again. Holding the egg in her left hand and putting her right hand on top, she activated her ability, but nothing happened.

'Then, how about life force?' she mused, as she tried sending her own life force towards the egg.

She immediately felt a warm energy travel through her right hand towards the egg as two new notifications popped up.

*New ability unlocked: Give Life*

*You, as a black healer, have supplied another creature with life force for the first time and unlocked the class-quest 'Giver of Life (1)'*

Seeing the notifications pop up, Evelyn first opened the description of her new ability.

*Give Life (Lvl. 1)

Give some of your own life force to another creature*

Seeing the basic description, she closed the page before opening the quest page.

*Giver of Life (1) – Class Quest

As a Black Healer you have the ability to influence the life and death of those around you. And as a part of this you have the ability to give life force to those you deem worthy.

Quest: Give life force to 5 creatures.

Reward: Ability 'Give Life' +1*, Lvl +1

Happy that her conjecture of it being possible to give life force to the egg had worked, and that she had even gotten a new ability and a quest, she continued supplying life force to the egg.

Not feeling any strain from the life force taken from her, she opened her stat window. There, she saw that her health stat, which had previously shown 20 (+76), now showed 20 (+75).

"So, it uses the excess life force I have been accumulating from the flowers and vegetation in the forest and uses it first. That's a relief."

Being happy that there was no danger to her own life, Evelyn continued giving life force to the egg, while monitoring her own stats. As she watched, she concluded that she used approximately 1 stat per every 2 minutes.

She tried to increase the flow of life force going from her to the egg, but noticed that there was a limit to how much life force she could give to the egg at once.

She settled herself with the fact that it would take a while to give the egg all her excess life force and simply remained where she sat. There were after all no monsters or other climbers in the chamber, and thus it was probably, at the moment, the safest place for her inside the tower.