Bad End Part 4, My Troubles Came to an End, Not as a Bang bu

Bad End

A Monster Girl Quest Isekai

4 - My Troubles Came to an End, Not as a Bang but a Whimper

Albert almost drowned. For all his thoughts of salvation, the next 20 minutes of his life proved to be a life threatening ordeal. He was exhausted, but worse than that was his body's condition. It turned out that swimming with one arm and one leg wasn't exactly a simple matter. With black humor, Albert thought that it figured that a peaceful, ordinary act like a swim in a lake would be the one to kill him. But once again, his pessimistic fears were defeated.

The battered man finally beached himself on the stony shore. He just lay there a while, panting and wheezing. Albert's whole body felt like it was on fire. He had pushed himself and pushed himself and now it seemed he had reached his breaking point. He put a few feet between himself and the water's edge before his body was finally given rest.

A ravenous hunger consumed him. Every muscle in his body screamed for relief. But what could he do? There was no answer to his ills. He curled his drenched body into a ball. Albert's eyes stared vacantly at nothing. The adrenaline had already drained out of his body and now he was left only with a crushing exhaustion. Albert was too hurt to think. He was too tired to care. His senses dulled. All he could hear was his slow, steady breathing.

Time passed. He woke up. Albert cried out as he was grasped by a terrible pain in his arm. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" he whimpered, the nagging feeling stabbing him with sharp shocks of agony. The man bit his lip and ground his teeth as he fought through the pain. "Ah... ah..." he panted, taking a breath as he hissed through his teeth. Tears welled in his eyes. "What the fuck?" he whispered. Albert figured he'd shifted in his sleep, put pressure on his arm.

The pain continued it's relentless assault. Albert somehow managed to compose himself. He realized he'd fallen asleep. He briefly wondered how long he'd been out. The man shifted to an upright position and shivered. He'd dried off, save for his sad pair of soggy boxers. Injured, naked, cold and hungry. It was a sorry state, but at least nothing had tried to eat him in his sleep.

Another flash of pain wracked his brain. He mumbled a series of hushed expletives. How long could he sit here and pity himself? Albert had to think about what would come next. His mind briefly wandered to past concerns like, 'What clothes am I going to wear? What am I going to do today? What am I going to jack off to?' His old world, his life, seemed so distant in that deep cave. Now, he had to think, 'Where can I find shelter? Where can I find food? How do I stay alive?'

His surroundings offered little aid. The dimensions of the room were vast. Albert guessed there might be as much as a mile's distance from wall to wall. Dominating the majority of the room was the lake with it's curiously glowing waters. Was it the waters themselves that glowed or was it some light source deep within? He couldn't say. The gap between the surface of the water and the cave ceiling was considerable, several hundreds of feet he was sure. Albert briefly wondered how it was that he had survived. Close to the center of the lake, a massive stalactite descended from the ceiling.

His personal surroundings were equally unhelpful. The 'beach' he'd found himself on was just a water weathered ledge that he'd managed to hoist (flop was a more accurate description) himself up to. A trio of jagged stones rose from the ground, ancient stalagmites that had been building up for untold centuries. No creatures lived on that barren shore. The only source of nourishment he could find was the unearthly lake and a curious silvery puddle some twenty-ish feet away. Dreams of cave fish flitted through his head, but even in the best of condition he would not have considered himself a hunter.

The hard stones around him were black, though he saw an occasional sparkle reflected from the lake's light. Others were of a more earthy hue, stained with colorful streaks at rare intervals. It was pretty, certainly. Albert couldn't help thinking that there was a strange otherworldly-ness to the place. It was a pointed reminder that he was in a fantasy world. But for all it's visual splendor, it did nothing for his empty belly.

The soft glow of the subterranean lake called to him. Albert was possessed by a terrible thirst. He briefly considered the repercussions of ingesting this water with it's unnatural shine. Once more, it seemed he had his choice of deaths. Dehydration? Or mystery fate? Radiation poisoning? Or maybe he'd just get to go the Oregon Trail route and shit himself to death? Albert didn't take long before he took his chance at Dysentery, drinking his fill of the turquoise liquid.

Once more, simple movements had been a challenge. His major pains aside, his entire body had been battered and bruised by his subterranean journey. Albert still hadn't worked up the courage to investigate his leg. Who knew how much time had passed and yet still he couldn't feel it. He was no doctor, but Albert was pretty sure that that was a bad sign.

Having sated himself (at least partially, as that persistent hunger unkindly reminded him), he moved back from the water. He took a deep breath, eye's still not daring to look down. He had to do it. Even if he could do nothing about it, Albert still needed to know the fate of his leg.

He bit his lip and looked elsewhere. Albert scanned the beach more thoroughly, traced it as it stretched along the water's edge. Surely he could find some kind of wildlife in a place like this? Some cave crustacean, hell, even bugs that might flourish here. A man had to eat, right? If he had to, he'd dare moss and mushrooms. He scanned the stalagmites, but there was no sustenance there. Lacking any other notable features to explore, he'd try the puddle later. It seemed a feeble hope, but Albert felt he could crawl the twenty feet. But he dreaded the trek, and anything more seemed impossible.

It seemed he was out of options. Now more than ever, he needed to know how bad his injury was. He mustered what little courage he possessed and looked down.

"What the fuck?" He cried, trying and failing to quiet himself as he spat out the only word that seemed to leave his mouth in this foreign world. Albert's eyes bulged, not willing to believe the hideous truth before him.

His leg was mostly whole, and for that he could have been thankful. But considering it's condition, Albert might be forgiven for his wanton use of profanity. His leg was black, as if it had been stained by ink or tar, and blotched by errant streaks of dark blue and purple. These threads crossed over his limb like a cobweb spun by a crazed spider, sparse, random, jagged. In the epicenter of that mass of flesh was a deep puncture wound the size of a quarter. The missing chunk had either been removed or smashed to pulp when his unknown assailant had stabbed at him.

A whine crept into his throat as he yearned to give voice to his woes. Only the knowledge of the evils around him quieted him. 'What kind of fantasy bullshit is this?' he thought. With trepidation he examined the limb by hand. He gently prodded his flesh and was stunned by the complete lack of sensation from his leg. He groped and grasped, trying to find some feeling, and in his desperation Albert pressed harder and harder.

A familiar explosion of agony assaulted him and he failed to suppress a yell. The pressured spot's pain made his other injuries seem a small thing by comparison. Seconds passed and so too did the pain. Albert was left gritting his teeth and huffing gasps of air.

The expected expletive crossed his lips. Albert's lack of real world knowledge plagued him again. He wanted to think that the fact that he could feel anything in his leg was a good sign, but he couldn't say for certain. Hell, even if he did know, who could say if this mystery injury followed the same rules that it would in his world? Albert was in a land of magic, after all.

At last he steadied his breathing. "Shit," he muttered, as Albert realized he was out of things to do. He couldn't reasonably think of any other action he could take but to force himself to move. But first, he had something he needed to do. Once more, Albert carefully scanned his surroundings, thinking that perhaps this time he might find some hidden aid. His eyes passed over the lake, with it's gentle ripples hinting at unobserved activity, to the jagged stones, and finally to the silver puddle some fifteen feet away.

Albert winced. He'd had his suspicions earlier, but the coward in him had forbade him from addressing the ugly truth. Puddles of water didn't just amble about. And that puddle was coming closer, slowly but surely. And considering this was the world of Monster Girl Quest (assuming his ridiculous notion was correct, and he was very much on board with that at this point), then the reason for it's curious movement was quite clear. A monster was closing in on him.

It wasn't all bad news, at least. It was a pretty safe bet to say that it was a slime, that most lowly of RPG antagonists. Even Luka had managed to fend one off as a fledgling adventurer, and he was just a child. But of course, Luka had been healthy and armed with a sword, while Albert was crippled and armed with underwear. And all of that was assuming that it was some low level EXP fodder. This was a world where slimes could ascend to the lofty rank of Heavenly Knight. The most deadly of slimes even dined on the flesh of men.

Albert was not about to take any chances. He finally steeled himself to make that first agonized movement. His right arm, assaulted by digestive Roper slime, was the better of his two arms, and after his rest it felt impaired only by his crushing exhaustion. It slapped against the cold stone. With a grunt, he brought the other arm forward, that arm so badly injured in his fall. Albert could scarcely stand to shift it's position. He cried out as he clumsily angled his arm forward and forced himself to grasp at the earth.

How could crawling be so difficult? And for all of that, the worst was still to come. He started with his uninjured leg, shifting it up to his body to brace himself for his next movement. But in so doing, he placed weight on the blackened leg. Albert howled. 'Fuck it,' he thought. A monster was trailing behind him, there was no need to quiet himself. All he had to do was move his last limb forward and he'd have put a foot between them.

It was hopeless, surely, but Albert did not consider it for a moment. He was driven by the need to survive. And so he brought his other leg forward. His thigh obeyed his call, free of the paralysis that devoured the rest of the limb. It dragged against the floor. The man's pain was terrible. He thought that it could not be endured.

But he did. He grit his teeth and groaned as he repeated the movement, again, again.  Each time his cries grew louder. He moved faster, desperately crawling towards a safety that did not exist. Albert loosed a roar of agony. Yet for all his efforts, he could not keep it up for long. The suffering was too much to bear. Even the threat of death could not make him do the impossible. As strength left his body, his voice too died, becoming an endless cry. Tears flowed unhindered down his face. At last, Albert's life was going to end. He decided to mount one last act of resistance, hands grasping for some tool to weaponize, as he cast a look back at the predator behind him.

A young girl looked at him with a look of shocked horror. Her hand was drawn to her face, covering her mouth, but her eyes betrayed her concern. Of course, it wasn't just a girl. Normal girls weren't silver, or made of gelatinous slime. It was a monster.

Silence dominated the scene, broken only by Albert's ragged breath, his pained wheezes. The monster stayed it's position. As expected, the slime had been masquerading as a body of water and had finally revealed it's true form. It was around five feet tall, with a form that mimicked that of a human being's. It's body was poorly defined, owing to it's slime nature, and globs of viscous liquid hanged from it's elbow, it's hands, it's breasts. Anywhere gravity might fight against the slime's unnatural form, it's malleable body oozed. Albert realized that he'd been wrong in identifying it as silver. Rather, the slime's entire body was largely translucent, like clear water, and the silver he'd noted was just light reflecting off of it's body. Past the slime's inhuman opacity and liquid body, it seemed quite human, save for the bed of slime that it's knees melded into. This mass of ooze caught the slime's errant drippings, acting as a reservoir that it's body might manifest from.

That aberrant monstrosity regarded him with a pained expression. Now that the two had met eye to eye, it seemed confused, unsure. It looked away and whimpered quietly, muttering some line of Japanese in an uncertain tone.

Albert took advantage of the monster's distress to further his search for a weapon. Whatever the reason, he'd been given a moment's reprieve. Maybe he could catch his breath and offer a more valiant resistance? Or perhaps he could have his saving grace, his deus ex machina, intervene at the last moment. Ages ago, some warrior had fallen down here, met his end, but somehow their sword had survived to meet Albert's grasp! Could such a story be true? Could it save him? But the man would find nothing like that.

The monster cautiously moved towards him. It seemed it had finally made up it's mind. Once more, Albert turned to panic. His body found another burst of energy and he set himself to scrabbling to some imagined safety. The man fought the pain that assaulted him as best he could, but he couldn't help but cry out.

Once more, the monster called to him in an anxious voice. Albert was tempted to think that perhaps his reaction was wrong. But he wouldn't be fooled, not again. He'd already relaxed his guard once before. His tortured leg was evidence to that mistake.

Albert lacked the strength to do anything but meagerly fight on. With another tortured scream, he bought another foot of distance. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. It was the only thought that dominated his mind. Everything else was instinct, reaction, impulse. His body moved forward.

The monster continued to carefully talk to him, but as ever Albert remained ignorant of the eastern tongue. He thought he heard 'wait' and 'please', but it was all just noise. It wanted to deceive him. It wanted to devour him. What fool would trust a monster?

“Ma-te,” the monster demanded, it's tone growing firm. Suddenly, Albert was engulfed. A wave of super thick liquid pressed on him. It was heavy, crushing, and for a moment Albert's pains were intensified a hundred-fold. But then the liquid passed over him, absorbed him. He didn't even have to guess the source. The slime had captured him. Only his arms and head were free of the viscous mass. Albert thrashed his body in response, trying to free himself from his prison of ooze, but it was a futile effort. In an instant, he had been utterly defeated. His fate now lie in the hands of his monstrous captor.

Albert was forced to face a new assault on his senses. His body was consumed by an intense burning sensation, but his leg had it worst of all. It was clear. He was being digested. Albert managed a cry of despair as he made another pointless struggle. The slime answered with a firm but reassuring tone.

Time stretched on. The monster continued to coo at him, looking peaceful, while Albert writhed under the awful burning all over his body. “Stop. Please, I'm begging you,” he desperately cried.

The monster regarded him with a curious expression, shook her head, and gently smiled. “Daijoubou,” it cheerfully said. And so Albert's journey ended, devoured by that most lowly of monsters.

Except it didn't. The burning subsided. The pain eased. Albert's face contorted in a moment of bewildered realization. His body's ills were going away. The slime girl laughed at him and rubbed her strange hand on his head in a condescending way. She said some foreign line and ended it with a cheerful, 'ne?' cocking her head to the side.

He'd been healed. Albert was almost certain this was the case. His deus ex machina had come, but in the strange form of a benevolent monster. He couldn't help but utter a shocked, “Oh.” Once more, the girl laughed, her voice seeming more cheerful. Albert noted a chiding tone, like he was being teased, but of course he missed the deeper meaning behind it. He couldn't do anything but offer a wimpy, “arigato.”

“Don mine, don mine!” she cheerfully responded. A full second passed before Albert realized she'd spoken English, or at least a Japanese speaker's crude attempt at it. His mind raced. She hadn't understood his own English earlier, right?

But of course! How hadn't he considered it till now? Even in English, there were borrowed words like karaoke and tsunami, so naturally there'd be English words that would be naturally incorporated into the Japanese language. That's without considering the deep Japanese-American ties caused by the American occupation post World War II. Between cultural influence and Cold War era containment efforts, the Western influence on the Japanese had been huge! They even taught English in grade school! So maybe that meant there were people here how knew English! Maybe not a comprehensive understanding of the language, but at least enough that Albert could talk to someone!

There were two conclusions he could think of. One, that the Monster Girl World thrived on the Japanese language and that it only borrowed English whenever the writer thought it would be cool, much like a teenage fanfiction writer might populate their garbage with samurai, honorifics and romaji'd nouns they'd picked up from an anime. Two, English, or at least it's equivalent, existed in the world, but was only learned in it's entirety by the educated elite. Maybe it had an even more obscure role, like a mage's tongue. How common was it that a fantasy character might shout 'fiya-baru'? Albert spared a moment to regret never having played the Monster Girl Quest games in Japanese. He might have a better idea of what role the English language played. Now he was trapped in the game itself. It looked like he'd never get to see what was in Paradox Part 2. But that was a foolish, frivolous concern. In any case, the second scenario would be optimal, but even the first probably meant that he could find someone who knew basic English.

His mind was jolted from it's inner workings as the slime girl on top of him reminded the man of her presence. The 'bed' he was contained in shifted and slided around him, putting unpleasant pressure on his wounded leg. While the slime's curative efforts had helped ease the pain considerably, the limb still hurt terribly. It was a strange sensation, being suspended in something that was neither solid nor liquid, but some gelatinous in-between, capable of increasing it's thickness and pressure at the slime girl's desire. She laid atop her bed and regarded Albert with a smug grin.

She talked to him a moment and then, satisfied, awaited his response. Albert had none to give. 'Shit, what do I say in this situation?' he thought. Well, she'd healed him once, hadn't she? Albert was no expert on this kind of fantasy RPG nonsense, but he'd guess that his 'HP' wasn't full. “Itai-desu,” he clumsily managed.

“Uso,” the slime flatly said, bringing her face closer to her captured prisoner. It seemed she didn't believe him. The monster had a follow up, but Albert was distracted as the pressure around his lower body increased. The girl licked her lips as she delivered a playful line.

Her intents were clear. This was definitely a 'about to be raped' scenario. A concern that she might eat him when she was done crossed his mind, but that kind of made the whole 'healing' thing pointless. If Albert had to guess, she was simply taking what she thought was a just reward for a good deed done. Although considering she'd been stalking him earlier, that probably wasn't the case either. She was just a monster with soft heart and a hunger for semen. Albert's mind spun at his sudden reversal of fortune. Something incredible was happening! It was the fem-dom monster girl scenario of the captured pervert's dreams!

The slime around his lower body continued to thicken, press, move and swirl. Albert bit his lip. Not out of some hope to restrain his body (really, they hadn't even gotten started), but out of a need to hold back how much she was hurting him. It was a golden opportunity to see the sensual ministrations of a monster girl first hand. Slime girls were good in Albert's book! And yet!

“Ah! Shit, stop, stop!” he groaned, frustrated.

“Stapu?” she said, grinning. “Yada.”

Her movements intensified. The motions inside the slime bed were clumsy. She was having trouble removing his boxers. Albert was trying his best to enjoy the feeling of pressure attending to him, but his leg simply wasn't having it. “Ah, c'mon!” He winced and grit his teeth. “This isn't a, ah! Fffffucking! I'm down with the sex thing, really buuuuuguuuuh! You're killing me here!” The girl looked at him, concern crossing her face. “Jeez! Itai-desu!”

“Honto?”

“Yeah, seriously, itai-desu. So please. Onegai-shimasu?” he said, the question posed both to her and his own incompetent grasp of her language.

The slime girl frowned as she gave him a long, hard stare. In spite of her own misgivings, the pressure relented, and shortly after Albert was ejected with an audible 'splorch'. It was a particularly un-sexy end to an un-sexy series of events. Albert shivered as his body broke out in goosebumps. He hadn't made note of it, but her body was warm. Albert's naked body already missed her embrace. The monster flowed to his new position and grumpily muttered something. She followed it up with a slap to his impaired leg, delivered by a stretchy limb. Albert howled in pain.

“Maji?” she said, exasperated.

“Did you think I was lying?!” He complained. If she could talk to him, he was allowed to talk to her in an equally incomprehensible tongue. Fair was fair.

“Nani ko-re?!” The monster growled and covered his leg in slime once again. “Chotto ma-te,” was her frustrated followup. Albert diligently did as he was told, expecting another wave of slime healing to put his leg back to normal. But a solid minute passed and the pain remained all the same. That ugly black stain persevered. Still, the slime girl released him and gave him another thwack just to be certain.

“Ffff- come on! Are you serious?!”

“Ehhhhhhhh?!”

Albert had just heard that elongated 'eh' sound that Japanese girls used to express disbelief. His eyes widened, shocked at the state of his affairs. “Unbelievable.” He shook his head and sighed. “Trust me lady, I want this way more than you do, but it is just not going to happen.” The frown on her face endured. Albert laid his head back on the ground, defeated. “How on earth did things turn out like this?” He laughed. He couldn't help it. Somehow, after all the misery and pain, this was the result.

The monster yelled at him, pouting grumpily and gesturing with angry sweeps. She was cute. She had a certain lack of maturity that was endearing. Not quite childish, just passionate, energetic. Or maybe she was and Albert just couldn't tell? That aside, now that he wasn't fearing for his life, he was free to admire her charms. He gave her breasts his approval. Slime aside, (actually, maybe that made them better?) they were well formed, perky, probably a C-cup. Like some MGQ slimes, she lacked nipples. Albert figured that slimes might have problems making fine details like that. Perhaps for that very reason, she leaned more towards curvaceous rather than slim, though she lacked the knockout figure of a full-bodied woman. It was a kind of sex appeal that could just as easily play at cute. Even without bones, her body still followed the rules of a human form, down to the little things like her elbows and collarbone. Her hair possessed an alien quality to it, seeming less like strands of hair and more like stubby pseuodpods. The slime's crown of tentacle-like hair framed her face without obscuring her eyes, with the back 'strands' ending close to her shoulders, but drooping beyond thanks to their oozing qualities.

It was a strange thing. Albert wasn't quite certain how to proceed with this new entity. He felt there was some kind of opportunity here, a chance for safety, but what actions on his part led to that safety? Well, for now, she seemed content to heal his injuries. “Hey, uh, slime girl?” Albert briefly wondered if there was a word for slime or if the Japanese had just appropriated the English term. The man winced as he held up his injured arm and gestured towards it. “Don't suppose you could help me out?”

The slime girl made a sour face, but she moved to help him all the same. Once more, they repeated the process of engulf and wait. This time, much like the first, his entire arm was covered in a burning sensation. It was pronounced, sure, but it wasn't as bad as he'd originally thought. Albert was embarrassed to think she had been trying to eat him. Actually, it reminded him a lot like a hydrogen peroxide treatment. Stings for a bit, sure, but that was it. Albert wagered that this was a few clicks higher on the severity scale, but nothing to make a man cry. No wonder she had made fun of him.

The burning passed and the slime released him. Albert gave the arm a test movement and breathed in sharply as a jolt of pain ran through him. It was bad enough to give him chills. The man doubled over, cradling the injury. So much for fantasy healing bullshit.

His display brought on another shocked gasp from his oozing companion. Her translucent arm coiled up, ready to strike out again. “STOP.” Albert had had quite enough of that and was thankful when she grumpily complied. "I am really not okay with this slapstick routine." But for all his complaints, he really was in a much better condition. Before, he'd put his pain at a 9, a great pain that he could only imagine being surpassed by some cruel torture. It had absolutely been the worst pain he'd ever experienced. Nothing else came close. Now, he'd put his injury at a 4. Bad, certainly, but manageable. He relaxed his face and did a little bow. He didn't know customs or courtesies, but he figured a thank you was in order. “Arigato.”

The slime girl sighed and placed her hands on her hips. The movement caused her whole body to shake a little, and Albert's eyes measured the action with more thanks. Once more, the slime girl went into a series of flustered exclamations, some of which Albert understood. 'Aho' and 'Baka' were nouns he had some familiarity with and he was fairly certain the insults were aimed at him. Her tirade finally wound down as she glared at him and said, “wakata?”

Albert knew that one. It was a verb, meaning to understand. And he sure as shit did not, but he knew enough to respond appropriately. “Wakara-nai.” This set her off on another angry verbal assault, complete with understandable insults. “Well, it's not like you understand me either, right?”

“Nani?”

“Yeah, exactly.” Well, it wasn't an optimal situation, but things could certainly be worse. Albert's belly groaned loudly, announcing his other major concern. He looked over to the girl, hopeful for some other offered solution. He wasn't too proud to beg for help. But she seemed lacking for a response. Albert sighed. “God damn it.” His face turned red before he even spoke a word, knowing he was about to severely embarrass himself. “Sakana daisukei!” It was not even close to what he wanted to say, but Albert lacked the basics of Japanese that might let him say, 'I'm hungry.' But he could say that he liked fish. The girl looked at him, confused at his sudden declaration of love for seafood. “Etto... Ugh... Watashi-wa baka-desu.”

The monster started to laugh. It wasn't a little laugh, no. It started as a restrained snicker, then a muffled chortle before escalating into a full bodied laughing fit. “Yeah, I know that's not how you say it! Or maybe it is? No, I'm pretty sure... Shit, I don't- I don't know Japanese, okay?” But the scene was too funny. Albert got caught up in it himself and laughed a bit at his own expense. Between this and the vore monsters, he'd take a little shame any day.

The slime girl recovered, easing in to a cheerful smile. “Wakata,” she said, before pointing to herself. “Beru,” the girl proudly announced. “Watashi-wa Beru. Hajimemashite, Baka-san.”

“Oh hell no,” Albert said with a laugh. “I am putting a pin in that right now. I am not going to accept the name of idiot.” The girl gave him a confused look. “Watashi-wa Albert.” The extremely English sounding name sounded dreadfully clumsy next to the Japanese language. “Err... Aru- Aruberuto.” And yet, that was worse.

Beru narrowed her eyes. “Aruberuto-san?” she said, looking less than pleased with the sound of it.

“Yeah, that's not exactly easy to say, is it? Not my fault your stupid language doesn't like double consonants. Or ending on a consonant. How did my two syllable name turn in to five?”

The slime girl ignored him. She cupped her face in her hand, looking contemplative. “Oh!” She exclaimed, pounding fist to hand in a eureka moment.

“What?” Albert asked. “You figure out a nickname or something?” He was sure it would be something cute.

She smiled at him. “Baka-san!”

A heavy moment passed. Silence. “Seriously?"

He was certain she didn't understand him, but she laughed all the same. Again, a silence settled between the two, with Beru considering something carefully. It was clear that she was in control at this point. If she wanted to devour him, well, he wouldn't have much say in the matter. Albert was thankful that that fear had passed. The question then was, what now?

Beru said another few rapid lines of Japanese, slowing down now and then to gauge him for understanding. Albert thought he caught a word or two, but whatever she said was way outside his capabilities. He shook his head. Beru just smiled. “Sakana daisukei!” the slime girl said in a deep tone with a laugh.

“I don't sound anything like that,” Albert grumbled, though he couldn't contain his own abashed grin.

The slime waved at him and gestured off to some distant place. Her intentions were clear. 'Go this way, get food.' Albert liked the sound of it. The problem was, how was he going to get there? The man dragged himself over to a jagged stalagmite and struggled to get to his feet. It was an ordeal. While his lesser injuries were gone, his exhaustion was still present, and he was down an arm and a leg. After a lengthy struggle, he managed to stand upright. It was a feat he'd been incapable of since entering the cave. And the worst thing was that this was the easy part.

“Oh shit...” he whispered. Albert tried putting weight on his crippled leg and instantly regretted it. That was not an option. Which meant that he was going to have to hoof some unknown distance on one leg. Albert hopped once, twice, now finding himself free from any kind of support. Every jump jarred his whole body. It hurt, but it could have been worse. He thought that maybe he could stand it, at least for a while. Albert hopped again, then once more, and then his weakened body lost it's balance and started tumbling down. The predictable end had occurred. At least this time, Albert was going to be certain he didn't shatter an arm in the process.

His face collided with something squishy and full of give. “Oh,” Albert said, pleasantly surprised by his soft landing. His body was carefully supported by a slimy cushion. His face was cradled between two lovely orbs. Albert had expected her body to be more liquid like, but Beru's protective membrane had a curiously solid surface that shielded her inner fluids. The man looked up into her face and saw her gauging him with a kind, yet scolding smile, like a teacher who'd found some incorrigible youth misbehaving. “Sorry. I wanted to give it a shot. Thanks for the save.”

How much she got out of that, he couldn't say. But she didn't seem too troubled. The monster brought her arms around him and carefully held him. “Daijoubou?” she asked, doing her best to spare him any unnecessary pains.

Albert took the moment to realize that he'd tripped and fallen into a girl's breasts. He prayed that this series of anime-like occurrences continued. He might be a proper Isekai protagonist some day after all. As answer to her, he held up his good arm with a thumbs up. Albert was right up against her breasts and he was getting antsy. He was definitely a boob man. Their mysterious structure had a siren-like allure. He wanted to hold them, play with them, man-handle them. Sure, they didn't speak the same language, but she'd tried to rape him earlier, hadn't she? That was as good as consent in his book. “The flesh is willing,” he said, knowing she'd be ignorant of his words. “If we did this carefully, we could make this work. Just drop the full body stuff and we would be good to go.” Just the thought of it was encouraging a reaction in his nether region. Beru was not ignorant of the change. But all she did was wistfully sigh, frustrated, and shake her head. “The feeling's mutual." Albert sighed into her soft 'skin', wondering briefly how a slime felt things. "Well, what now, Beru? Err, Beru-san? Shit, I'm gonna have to use honorifics, aren't I? God, I feel like such a weeb.”

The cheerful slime said another unknown, then carefully maneuvered herself around him. She stopped, uncertain of how to continue, then gave a little laugh. Beru slid herself to his side and moved her arms underneath him. With a little 'hup', she brought an arm under his legs while she used her other to support his back.

Albert was aghast. “You can't be serious?” His face flushed once more as the girl brought him aloft. “You're going to princess carry me?” Beru ignored his complaints and started to move along in her smooth, gliding way. She moved slowly, careful not to move her delicate cargo more than necessary. “I'm not a shota, so we're clear. I am a grown ass man. This is not something you do to a grown man, lady. I am- I am almost positive I am older than you. Like, grossly older than you. Like, old-ass man, older than you.” That wasn't quite true, but Albert had an unpleasant opinion of his age that made him consider his years as worse than they really were.

“Hai, hai,” she patiently said. “Wakara-nai.” It was a firm declaration.

“You too? Good. Great.” Albert sighed. In spite of her gentle movements, those enticing spheres seemed to jostle and sway more than they should. Heck, for all he knew, she was doing it on purpose. It certainly seemed within a monster's character to get off on tempting a man. “So, Beru-san, tell me about yourself.”

“Eh?”

“Right. Language barrier. Good. Great. I bet this is how you felt, huh?”

She responded with something he couldn't even try to decipher.

“Good talk.” He sighed. Albert was definitely going to need to find a way around that if his stay in the MGQ world was to continue. He supposed that that was a goal for the future. God, goals. There was a frightening prospect. If this kept up, he might actually have to start thinking about what to do with himself in this sorry situation.

Instead, he let himself be distracted. Silvery melons dangled like forbidden fruit. Albert was desperate for a taste. He had a good arm, a free arm. What was to stop him from taking action? But some little voice inside of him told him no. Another thought crossed his mind. 'You pussy. Pussy. Pussyyyyy.' Yeah, he agreed. If only she could kindly rape him.

It seemed she'd given up on talking to him, content to focus on her 'walk'. Albert wondered what was going on in her head. He wondered where he was going. What was she thinking about? Why did she help some random guy? What was he going to do? How was he going to get home? Was he going to be okay? He had so many questions and concerns, but no answers. Albert was in a foreign land with no possessions, few skills, more fat than muscle, more cowardice than bravery, little sense and only modest intelligence. But for all his concerns, they all seemed so distant. For now, he was safe. He was content to watch those swaying breasts, to take comfort in the warm glow of her supple form, to dream of amorous exploits. Yes, he was in a land of fantasy, magic, adventure, monsters and more. Perhaps it was foolish, but he allowed himself to consider his own fantasy adventure that might lie before him. And like that, the curtain of exhaustion fell upon the weary world crossing traveler, and Albert drifted into peaceful slumber.

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Phew! What a chapter! The longest one yet. Big apologies for the delay! I had a lot of troubles with this one. I like dialog and action, but I have a bit of a tough time with description and atmosphere. Most of my time spent working on this over the past few weeks was on that opening bit and trying to make that work. But honestly, I'd been dreading working on this chapter as soon as I started it. Beru's character design was a big concern and I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to make the language barrier dialog entertaining. That said, I think I'm content with the result.

If you've been reading for suffering, I have bad news. We're entering a new arc in the story that's going to be on the other side of the misery pendulum. There's going to be a big focus on society, relationships and exploration rather than the action-oriented survival tale that it's been till now. Hopefully you find it enjoyable. If you're an action fan, you're not alone. I fully plan on getting back to that kind of story in due time.

Thanks for reading. I'll see if I can't push the next one out a little faster. Next chapter: more slime girls, more shenanigans.