That Time I Fell in Love with a Slime

Reincarnation [rewritten]

A searing, white-hot bolt of pain shot through my entire body as I lurched forward. The pain was like nothing I had ever experienced. It burned, as if molten metal was being dripped onto my body with each movement, the sudden sheer agony of it all prevented me from even crying out. Too stunned to notice the floor coming up to meet me, I smashed into it, and I heard the stomach-turning crack of head on stone. Due to blood loss or the cold floor, the burning subsided just a little, only to make way for a deep, throbbing ache to make itself known.

By then, the shock of the injury had given way to pure panic. "I'm dying. I'm going to die. I don't want to die, I don't want to die!" It was then I heard that voice for the first time. I thought I was just hearing things, it was a phantasm of a terrified mind, but it was real. "...Confirmed. Unique Skill 'Protector' successfully acquired." The mechanical voice read, but I paid little heed to it, just barely gripping onto consciousness against the waves of agony stinging through my body. "...Confirmed. Cancel Pain successfully acquired." Then, the pain suddenly vanished into nothingness, a void quickly filled by an icy chill, probably from blood loss some still-rational part of my mind pointed out. "...Confirmed. Resist Cold successfully acquired. Constructing a body without blood...Confirmed." What the...what's that voice on about...? Now the pain and cold were gone, pure exhaustion threatened to take over and plunge me into nothingness. I wonder what's going to happen to me? Who was right about what happens after you die? I silently pondered, my ever-curious mind deciding to ask one last question in this world. "...Confirmed. Unique Skill 'Curiosity' successfully acquired." That was the last thing I heard on Earth before I succumbed to my injuries, and died, aged only 23, on the precipice of my life.

Darkness surrounded me, an absolute blackness my eyes refused to adjust to no matter how long I waited, how hard I stared. For what must've been minutes, but felt like hours, I tried to see, but to no avail. In this time, I also discovered the fact that I couldn't feel or move any of my limbs. "Am I in a coma?" I thought, terrified of the possibilities. Terrified of the thought that I might be like this forever, trapped in the dark, alone and unmoving. Desperately, I tried to move, willing my body to shift even a little. It worked. Barely, I had moved myself a tiny amount. But it worked. However, the movement felt strange, unnatural, like I slid against the ground. I slid, smoothly and seamlessly, without any friction or resistance. Well that's weird, you'd expect to feel some friction, especially if you're on a hospital bed or something. I seem to remember getting shot, or stabbed maybe, so I don't see why I wouldn't be in a hospital. Obviously I'm alive, since I'm clearly thinking fine but this is really weird.

I tried moving again, this time a little further. Once again, I slid smoothly across the ground and I felt the strange sensation of my body moving around a small lump. "Okay, that is definitely not normal, what's going on here?" I tried moving again, and the lump moved right through me as I slid over it. This time, however, I was stopped by the presence of a thing, much larger than the previous lump.

After a lot of experimentation, I came to the conclusion that whatever it was, it was smooth, round and (worryingly) about the same size as me. I had a pretty clear picture of what it looked like, and one other thing had become abundantly clear: I was almost certainly the exact same shape as it. This explained a few things: first and foremost, why I couldn't move my arms and legs; second, why I moved in such a weird way; and finally, that I'm, somehow, no longer in a human's body. So, here's what seemed to have happened: I was seriously injured as a human, and now I'm in this round, slightly squishy body that evokes memories of one of gaming's most well-renowned monsters: the slime.

The word that comes to mind to describe what apparently happened to me is reincarnation. Reincarnation of some description, at least. I assume I died back when I was injured, but then what? Was this the full shebang of reincarnation like you see in loads of, honestly, pretty crappy light novels, or is this just a random, pre-existing, being given my memories and thoughts or similar? I doubted I'd be able to find out, so I shelved the question for another time.