The Chronicles of Dwynveia - a Slimeling LitRPG

‘My lady,’ Lilyth began with a weak voice. ‘Thank you for gracing us with your presence. If I may request one thing: If you think I have offended you in some way feel free to punish me however you want. Just don’t hurt my friends. They are not responsible for my actions.’

‘Finally learned your place, mortal?’ the goddess laughed. ‘What makes you think I am a fair deity?’

Lilyth visibly shrunk.

‘Nothing, my lady. Which is why this is a request. If you want me to beg on my knees, I will. Just don't hurt my friends because of me.’

She thinks this is all her fault, doesn't she?

‘Why do you think this is a punishment, little mortal?’

‘I attacked-’

‘I don’t care about what you did to old Sun. He was playing stupid games, and so he won his stupid prize. And don’t get into your head that hurting him makes you special. It doesn't. You are a nobody and chances you will be able to repeat your feat are non-existent. As a Terran, you are an agent of chaos, but by no means unique. There are currently over one hundred of you living on Dwynveia and all of you are capable of what you did. If you didn't go through what you went through in the Tower you would not be worth our attention. But you ended up entangled in our games and it makes you a factor to consider. None of your companions is special either. Aki is only relevant because of her grandfather. Caeileera’s goals are noble but don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, and Master Sergeant Adzhenair, Savri… well… I’ll respect your secrets. You, my dears, are all nobodies and would remain such if given the chance. But, I don’t think that option was ever on the table.’

‘So why bring us here, my Lady?’ Lilyth cried out. ‘Why not just let the Sun kill us?’

‘Because I wanted to see how the four of you would handle my, as you put it, my House of Horrors. Don’t worry, I like the name. My rules are simple. Amuse me and you get rewarded. Fail and you will be forgotten.’

‘So my Lady, does this mean that once we complete this “Main Event,” we can just leave and, based on us being “nobodies,” just try to lead normal lives?’

‘You can certainly try. No guarantees you will be able to. Now, get going - there is a portal waiting for you on the other side of the door.’

Wait…

‘My lady,’ I asked. ‘Is it the same portal your Steward said we were supposed to find? Or is it some other gate?

The goddess laughed.

‘Ah. Those are some excellent questions.’

‘This is the Main Event, isn’t it?’ I continued. ‘The objective was to find the portal no matter the means. You telling us where it is, counts. Assuming this is the same portal. Unless… hmm… could the criteria be to find any portal?

The goddess clapped her hands and hooted.

‘Very good, Aki! Very good, indeed. You will make a fine protege of Irmen, and constant vigilance and paranoia will get you far here as well. There was only one portal here. Its location was up in the air though. And yes. This was the Main Event. What could be grander than a meeting with me, after all? The first part was the meeting with my steward. Had you failed it… well… then this door would instead lead to an absolute gauntlet of horrors. You were given tools to prevail against those, but it was… less of a certainty.’

‘If you are seeking amusement, My Lady,’ Lilyth spoke once again. ‘Then why not have us run those anyway? It surely must be more amusing to see us fight and die.’

‘Because you are capable of asking questions like this, my slimy friend. The meeting with the Sun almost broke you, but that spark of defiance is still within you. And don’t sell yourself short, Lilyth. You prevailed in the hospital, so you could have well succeeded here. The other reason is that I can get hundreds of you mortals to run and die around here. There is no shortage of desperate fools who will happily risk their lives and limbs for my table scraps. People who are capable of thinking their way through issues… Now, you are a rarer bunch. I gave you this fairly easy set of challenges because the way you solved them proves I can expect you to provide me with more amusement in the future.’

‘Wh-what do you mean my lady?’ Caei asked. ‘Are we to return here?’

‘Perhaps. If you will ever require knowledge or some boon you may always return here. Entertain me, and if it will be within my power, I shall grant it. And if someone ever decides to throw you into a volcano again… I might make you my playthings as well.’

‘So wait… this was your version of us playing ddakji?’ Lily asked.

‘In a way…’ the goddess chuckled. ‘Though to be fair, I have no idea who would win in such a contest given how you never played it, and I suck at it. Also, Lilyth I see that, as Sun so aptly put it, you are not incapable of learning. It would be a shame not to “strike the iron while it is glowing hot”. Allow me to share some harsh truths with you. This is not the first time we've met, nor I suspect it will be the last. You see… you are an agent of chaos and for better or worse, I foresee you doing some great and valuable things for Dwynveia. But the problem is: You always end up making a massive mess of things, so I need to reset you so you can maybe do some good. But no matter what I try you just end up making a different tragic mistake. I see now, however, I have been doing it the wrong way. I always change the variables a bit, but you are the one constant. So, I will be changing my plans a bit since this version of you might not be beyond salvaging. My original idea was to, as usual, let you play it out till the end and watch you suffer the consequences Don’t worry, I won’t make you remember them… this time, as you are in such a perfect state right now. Cowed enough to know your place, but still defiant enough to want to challenge the status quo. So letting things run their natural course would likely ruin it since I want to see if making the learning stick will make a difference.’

‘What do you mean, my lady?’ I asked, feeling a deep pit in my stomach.

‘It’s not going to be anything bad. Don’t worry. At least not for you. There is a version of the world that exists where Lilyth never went through the Tower of Trials and the four of you never got entangled in the Great Game. But… you aren't exactly the same people there, nor is the world the same. What I am going to do is create a split timeline of that reality and replace the versions of you four, with well… you. You will keep your memories, and get the relevant bits from your other lives. I can’t promise your bodies will be the same, but I will let that be a surprise. Not all of you will keep your existing ones, and some of those of you who do may see some adjustments that will let you maintain your identity in the new world’

Wait… what?

‘You can do that?’ Lilyth asked, mouth agape.

‘Yes. You see my child… and you are not going to remember this bit, I am not just a normal god, not that there is such a thing. In fact… My name is a mistranslation that I never bothered to correct as it leaves me to my games in peace. I am not the Madness That Dwells Outside. It’s better rendered as “The Chaos From Which All Was Born”, Anyway… I hope this time your run will be different.’

She raised her hand and snapped her fingers.

We found ourselves standing on a beach overlooking a large lake. I looked at my companions. The biggest immediate change I’ve noticed was Caeileera - she had her mask back. She let out a sudden laugh of joy, threw off her cloak and her wings unfurled from her back.

‘They’re back! And I can hide them!’

I looked down feeling hope, but it was quickly quashed. My right hand was still missing, so apparently that was one bit Lady Madness didn't bother to fix. I still wore the same clothes she gave me so I knew that I outright kept my body. Savri looked the same too, as for Lilyth… I did my best to restrain my laughter. Caeileera was nowhere near as nice.

‘What the fuck, Lilyth… I didn't know you were one of those…’

‘I’ve been to some events where those ears of yours would make you really popular!’ joked Savri, which made me start laughing too.

Lilyth took one of her knives and checked her reflection. She gasped in horror and dropped it.

‘Your ass too,’ I pointed out, tears streaming from my eyes.

You see… Lilyth was now sporting a cute pair of triangular ears covered in orange fur that extended way above her head, and which were covered in orange fur, which matched the colour of her hair. Her eyes changed colour from steel blue to bottle green. My slimy cutie was now also sporting a truly marvellous orange tail with a white tip. At first, it seemed to be ghostly, but then it solidified into an actual tail. It was still flickering in and out of "existence", so I assumed Lilyth could control it to some extent. Her appearance made me laugh so hard at the sight I barely registered a notification I just got.

System Update Completed

There would be time to worry about that later. All that mattered then was that my girlfriend… was now a kitsune.