A repetitive dripping sound disturbed the sleep of a young man. Suddenly, he woke up.
"Where… where am I?" he said, panicking. He was lying on his stomach, and his hands fumbled around on both sides to figure out what kind of surface he was on. It was total darkness—no light whatsoever. The cold air chilled his damp hands.
"Am I in a cave?" The assumption wasn't wrong. From the rocky shapes of the floor and the constant dripping, he concluded he might indeed be in a cave. He tried to remember how he got there. "If I remember correctly… no, I don't remember anything!"
He started to panic and buried his head in his hands, wearing a horrified expression. "What's my name? I even forgot that!?" He had absolutely no memory of anything before waking up in this eerie place.
He nearly lost his mind under the weight of so many questions, and the oppressive atmosphere wasn't helping. Still, he pushed himself up with both hands and tried to stand as best as he could.
"Argh!" He collapsed immediately as soon as he put weight on his left leg. The pain jolted him back to reality—it wasn't just a dream. He tried moving his leg—it was fine. Then he moved his ankle. The pain struck again. A sprain! "As if being stuck here wasn't enough!?"
Several minutes passed in a heavy silence, broken only by the intermittent dripping of water on the cold rock. The young man desperately tried to piece together his memories. When that failed, he focused on understanding his situation. Though it was terrifying, he displayed remarkable rationality in these critical moments.
Indeed, it was a critical situation. "I'm probably in a cave. There's no light at all, and judging by the echo of the dripping, the cave must be pretty big—maybe full of tunnels."
He started analyzing his surroundings.
"My ankle is injured—I can't walk. Moving around on one leg in complete darkness is too dangerous, and crawling with one hand while using the other to avoid obstacles would be tough. But maybe I can drag myself forward using just one leg."
"I'll need water and food. For water, I can drink from the drips or puddles. Food isn't urgent yet—maybe I'll get out of here before I get too hungry. But even the idea of food brings up a major question: Am I alone in this cave?"
He swallowed hard and began crawling, continuing his train of thought.
If he didn't escape the cave within the next two weeks, he'd start to lose too much energy, and hunger would impair his reasoning—and his willpower—endangering his survival. Even if he wouldn't die of starvation for another week or two beyond that.
He had to find out if there were other forms of life nearby. Insects or animals. Though the thought of crawling around in an unknown place where who-knows-what might be watching him was terrifying.
What if a two-meter-tall mosquito with chimpanzee arms suddenly dragged him away by the leg!?
A nightmare-worthy scene.
But that was highly unlikely—impossible, even. Though his memory was faulty, the amnesiac hadn't lost all his common sense. Creatures like that didn't exist.
Suddenly, a roar echoed through the entire cave. The sound reverberating against the stone walls was deafening. To describe it, one might say it was like the screech of a golden eagle mixed with the roar of a dragon.
The boy's body froze, a chill rushing from his neck down to his toes, making every hair on his body stand on end. His survival instinct went into such overdrive that he thought he might die just from hearing that roar. "Is this a joke?" he thought. His trembling body wouldn't let him crawl anymore. "I need to move. Now's not the time to freeze up—the roar came from far away!"
Determined, he began crawling again. After covering a few meters, he finally felt a wall with his outstretched hand. "Finally!" He struggled to sit with his back against it, tilting his head to let the dripping water fall into his mouth.
"Okay… forget finding the exit for now," he muttered, not wanting to speak louder for fear of alerting whatever creature had roared, thanks to the cave's echo.
The situation had changed completely: He was now prey. His goal was no longer escape—it was survival! But first, a nap, because he had no strength left to move.
…
Close to hypothermia, the boy's light sleep was interrupted by a warm, viscous sensation wrapping around his injured ankle. Though oddly pleasant, it snapped him back to awareness, and he yanked his leg away.
"What the hell is that!?" he exclaimed, scooting along the wall to get as far away as possible. To his surprise, the thing replied: "Mii, mii!"
His heart skipped a beat. On top of the strange sounds it made, he could still feel the warm touch on his leg. "Get off me! I'm not edible!" he yelled, his voice echoing through the cave. Though he tried to stay calm, he just wanted to cry and stop fighting his paralyzed by fear body.
The slime-like thing climbed onto him quickly. As he tried to push it away, his hands sank into it. It was like a living jelly. The blob reached his neck.
"This is it. I'm gonna die…" the young man thought, giving up all resistance.
As the slime covered the top of his head, the boy saw a light. "Is this heaven?"
"Oh wait—it's just this thing!" he shouted. What was that on his forehead!? The blob emitted a strange light, allowing him to see his surroundings. He pushed himself off the wall, leaving the slime behind, and managed to stand.
What he saw in front of him was unimaginable! A small gelatinous creature with a mouth shaped like a tilde and two little black dot-eyes. It glowed golden yellow. The light from its body made a faint sparkling sound, and more importantly—his ankle pain was gone!
If he could stand now, when he could barely crawl earlier, then the blob must have healed him. And he no longer felt the cave's freezing cold.
His quick thinking helped him realize the situation. He stopped the foot he was about to use to kick the blob as hard as he could. "Phew, that was close…"
He approached the little creature, which tilted its expression to the side while mimicking him. "Mi-mi?"
"So you healed me? What exactly are you?" He wasn't really expecting a reply—just too curious not to ask.
The blob gave off a comforting aura. Ever since it started glowing, the boy's frantic mind had calmed. The light seemed to pour into him. It was warm and gentle, with the scent of a sunny seaside.
After a moment, the glow dimmed—just enough to light the space between them. The boy crouched and touched the blob. "So this jelly-thing can heal? Then there's no time for questions. Thanks to it, I'm healed. It glows too—that could help me find the way out! Plus, if it needs food or water, it might lead me to the important spots in this cave."
As his finger bounced on the slime's head, it made a face one might describe as cute. "Mii-i! ^-^"
He was slightly surprised and stopped poking it. "Little slime creature, want to come with me?"
The creature seemed upset. "Miii!" For some reason, the boy understood it was because of what he called it.
"You don't like the name 'little slime creature', huh?" The creature bounced twice. "Mii-i!"
The boy sat cross-legged in front of the blob and thought for a moment. "Mhhh, how about Vis?" The blob's face lit up happily. "Mii-iii!"
"Alright then, from now on you're Vis!" The boy chuckled at his little trick—it was just short for 'viscous'. He'd use this innocent creature to heal all his injuries, find water, and eat its whole food stash to survive in this place! 'And it better not stop glowing.'
As his inner villain laugh started to escape, and Vis tilted in confusion, a blue screen suddenly popped up in front of the boy, making him jump.
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Congratulations! You have unlocked a Familiar!
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"What now!? Wait—A WHAT!?"