by Konrad Ryan
When Tad felt he was in range, he reached out his hand, palm toward the slime as he prepared to cast his spell. But what spell should it be? It was a dark blue slime. Would that be water? A water slime would probably be weak to thunderbolt, but an ice slime would most likely be weak to fire. Dark blue had to be water… right?
Tad cast the spell. Electricity jumped from fingertip to fingertip as the spell charged. A loud sigh of relief came from behind, from Scar. Despite Tad’s claims, the man said he didn’t believe Tad could still cast spells without a wand. Tad could almost feel the oppressive attitude of the group lift several notches.
“Thunderbolt!”
Black lightning shot across the hallway, striking the slime. Tad smiled. He could even change the colors of the spells. The lightning pierced deep into the slime, a gigantic hole ripped through its center. Ooze dripped from the hole and it shuddered in silent pain. The slime wasted no time to launch its counterattack. A shotgun blast of small water droplets sped toward Tad, but a blur of motion to his left rushed to meet it. Gruff’s heavy iron shield expanded to block the slime’s attack completely. Tad already had the next spell ready. One hand on the edge of Gruff’s shield, Tad took aim and fired three more lightning bolts. The spells flew true. The blue slime splashed into a dark blue puddle on the floor before it had time to launch a second attack.
“Watch out, they’re behind us!” Scar shouted.
Across the cavern, several slime trails condensed and tightened into blobs of slime. The slimes had spread out on the ground, hiding in plain sight.
“It’s an ambush!” Scar growled. “We’re surrounded.” Scar took a step closer to Tad. Or maybe it was toward Gruff’s still overlarge shield.
Three green slimes blocked the tunnel from which they’d entered. Two red slimes hung from the cavern ceiling twenty feet up and two more dark blue slimes formed from the ground, blocking their exit. Next to where the first dark blue slime met its crackling demise.
They had to fight seven slimes, where they had only been fighting them one by one so far. Tad’s stomach crept into his throat.
“Nobody move! They don’t seem to know where we are,” Gruff said. “You out of magic again, Kid?”
“No, I can keep going, a few more spells, I think.”
“You think or you know? If we fight without spells, people will die.”
Tad had been unconscious long enough to refill his mana completely, after the four lightning bolts, he still had eight mana.
“I can cast eight more spells, more if…” If he leveled up. He’d almost said the words out loud. Good thing he caught himself.
Scar made a strangled sound like a wounded animal, “Then why in Titan’s bunghole did we wait a whole hour for just two spells!”
The man had a point.
“Enough, if the kid can cast, then we fight. There are seven slimes, but only enough spells to kill two. We kill the blue slimes ahead and exit out the far tunnel. On my move.” Gruff said. The dungeon leader had decided. Obey or die. Tad felt it in the man’s voice. In that moment, there was no room to question his command.
Without warning, Gruff grabbed the front of Tad’s overlarge shirt and flew forward. Tad’s arms, legs and head rag-dolled backward at the sudden acceleration. His neck almost snapped off!
“Now, Kid!”
All hell broke loose as Tad attacked. The blue slimes in front shotgunned slime droplets that Gruff deftly blocked with a twirl of his shield. Hot jets of fire streamed from the red slimes on the ceiling above, but Gruff was too fast. He dodged the fire from above, pulling Tad along with him. Scar and Blondegirl covered their backs. Scar used his two-handed sword to slice the large green acid drops in half as Blondegirl shot spectral arrows from her bow, killing the momentum of the acidic blobs. They splashed harmlessly across the ground.
Tad launched lightning bolt after lightning bolt into the blue slimes. Gruff would pause just long enough for Tad to get an attack off before he darted out of the pathway of several attacks. It was a dangerous game, but it proved effective as Tad’s lightning bolt destroyed the second dark blue slime. Gruff darted into the tunnel beyond the two dead slimes, the entire party in tow. The same musical chime played inside Tad’s head.
*You have leveled up!*
A wave of refreshing energy shot through Tad once more, his mana refilled. Even better, the pink raw skin from Blondegirl’s healing healed. Every scrape or scratch disappeared completely. The healing from leveling up felt wonderful. This was how healing was supposed to feel! Not painful like Blondegirl’s healing had been.
“I got twelve more spells!”
“Nice work, Kid-“
A fiery red slime three times as big as any slime they had met sat directly in their path, blocking the entire tunnel. The center of the slime glowed red, a concentrated sphere of fire formed directly beneath its outer membrane.
“Run! Get out!” Gruff shouted.
Tad turned to run, but was apparently too slow for Gruff’s liking as he yanked on the thick cloth shirt. He jerked Tad along like he weighed nothing, no maybe even less than nothing like a balloon attached to the wrist of a toddler.
The entire party escaped the tunnel just as the beam of fire exploded from within. Gruff took the biggest hit, but the beam of fire caught Tad’s legs as they scrambled back into the cavern. Pain exploded as blisters immediately formed across Tad’s legs once more. Not that he’d even been using them.
Tad followed the beam of fire past them as it flew into the center of the slime cavern. His eyes widened in dread as the two red blobs from the ceiling dropped into the path of the huge firebolt. Had they sensed the heat? Abruptly the firebolt disappeared and the two red blobs swelled to twice their original size. Simultaneously, the two red slimes shot firebolts into each other. The force of the attacks caused both of them to fly to opposite sides of the cavern. With Tad’s party directly in between them.
There was no time to worry about them as green acid rained from above. Huge acidic droplets, volleys like artillery shells, splashed from above repeatedly. Scar’s arms and face were splotched with acid burns from deflecting the drops. Blondegirl was seemingly unharmed as she deftly dodged everything that came at her, firing spectral arrow after arrow to deflect the acidic attack. She was even faster than Gruff!
“Kill one of them quick! I can’t block both!”
Tad looked to where Gruff pointed. The two red slimes glowed, a familiar sphere of fire beneath their thick red membranes. They would shoot two torrents of fire from different sides. Gruff could only block one!
Tad charged Icebolt. But even if he cast them, the red slime’s attack would engulf his spells! They would cancel themselves out! With limited mana, he couldn’t afford to waste any. A plan blossomed in Tad’s mind. “Gruff!” Tad yelled over the clamour of their party members, desperately blocking the green blobs shot like artillery shells. “Throw me at that red slime!” He pointed at the closer of the two.
Gruff didn’t even hesitate. He yanked Tad past him and hurled him at the slime. Tad flew at an incredible speed. Tidwell’s ghost, this was a bad idea! Tad fired the first two icebolts as the fire sphere grew. They sank deep into the slime. It shuddered in pain. Almost in slow motion, the slime’s red membrane pulled back to release the firebeam. Tad shoved his hand deep into the red slime, through the firebeam. He screamed in pain as he cast his spells.
“Icebolt! Icebolt!”
The red slime exploded, the concussive force of the explosion rippled up Tad’s arm. Bones audibly snapped before the pain hit. He tumbled across the slimy floor as red slime rained down in thick globules that just barely missed him. Fire exploded across Gruff’s shield in the same instant, but the shield grew to match the size of the bolt. It dissipated completely, but Gruff’s scream followed. The shield was red hot but still strapped to his arm, as it burned and sizzled his flesh.
Tad got up on shaky legs and pointed the finger of his unbroken left hand at the second fire slime.
; “Icebolt! Icebolt!”
Twin icebolts shot from his finger-gun. His left hand was much less accurate, and he missed as much as he hit. But his eighth and final icebolt struck true, the second red slime hissed and splashed across the floor. An electronic chime rang through Tad’s head.
*You have leveled up!*
Rejuvenating energy surged through Tad. His broken arm twisted and set back into its proper position. The healing felt like a warm balm on a frosty day. Like an icy kiss against his tender burnt flesh. The bones knit together painlessly. Tad flexed his hand to test it. Thank the creators he healed fully on level ups. Mana too. He breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe they could get through this alive after all!
“I’ve got more spells!“
“You little liar! You said you could do eight more spells. I counted twenty!” Scar seemed more surprised than angry, despite being covered in acid burns. “And you’ve got more!”
“Kid, ignore him. Ignore the green slimes too. We’ll block their attacks, just kill the big one in the tunnel.”
Tad turned toward the tunnel. He’d just leveled up. Would twelve mana be enough to take down that big slime? It was enormous. A second jet of fire exploded from the tunnel entrance, splashing across the far wall of the cavern. That slime was strong.
But it didn’t matter how strong it was. It was stuck in the tunnel and couldn’t move. It should be an easy kill. Tad approached the tunnel from the side and looked in. The slime wasn’t charging another attack yet. Tad pointed his hand down the tunnel and cast twelve icebolts, one by one.
Upon releasing his twelfth icebolt, the giant red slime bubbled and collapsed on itself. A wave of heat rippled from the dead slime. Sweat dripped down Tad’s brow. The electronic jingle rang inside Tad’s head.
*You have leveled up!*
Was that his third level up in one battle? It’d all happened so fast he wasn’t able to keep track. Who would’ve known battle to be so hectic!
Tad waved on the rest of the party, who ran deep into the tunnel, out of the reach of the green slime artillery. The tunnel was short. It opened into a compact room with an ornate door with five handprints forming a star.
Gruff laughed between deep breaths. “Guys, I might not use magic, but I can just throw the kid who can. I call it, mage toss!”
Everyone in the group laughed, Tad included. The laughter was different from the laughter at the dungeon entrance, where he had tried to laugh with the group. Before, they’d been laughing at him. Here, though, he was part of the joke, part of the laughter. Tad never felt such delightful laughter. Was this what it was like to have friends?
“I can’t imagine you’re good to keep going though, right?” Gruff said. He gave Tad an appraising look, like a drunk man who stumbled upon a coin somewhere he hadn’t expected.
Tad glanced at Scar before answering. “I can probably heal some wounds, but I need to rest after that.”
Scar had had enough. “No, I refuse to believe it. How did you go from barely able to cast two spells to being able to dispatch an entire room of slimes? That makes no sense at all. And then having enough magic to heal us afterwards? It’s impossible!” Scar didn’t seem like he would let this issue go.
Tad tried to think of what kind of answer he could use to placate the always-angry man. “Well… It’s embarrassing. Earlier, I just didn’t know how many spells I could cast. I didn’t have a good feel for it. It was my first time casting spells. Ever.” He hoped the lie sounded convincing.
“So you’re saying you wasted all our time back there, for an hour, while you twiddled your thumbs up your-”
Gruff cuffed Scar on the back of his head. The blow seemed hard enough that it might have even inflicted damage points.
“Isn’t that splendid news, Terrance? Our little civilian here has more magic than we thought. In a slime dungeon. Where we need his magic. Don’t complain about that.”
Scar grumbled something under his breath before he turned and surveyed the ornate door in front of them all.
“The boss is behind that door, Kid.” Gruff said. “But before that, Becca, how about you and Terrance go back and retrieve the monster essence?”
Monster essence? Tad had seen none in person. Just online, but what it was used for, Tad wasn’t sure.
“Can we take the kid? Might be more slimes.”
Gruff grunted his assent.
“Why do we want monster essence?” Tad asked.
Gruff reached into his equipment bag at his side and fumbled around. “The monsters, when you kill them, you can harvest their essence. It’s kind of like their soul, I guess. It’s how slayers make their money.”
Gruff pulled a glass lantern from his bag. It was a small glass sphere, with beautiful rich trim decorating the sides. It looked like an ornate Chinese lantern. Inside the sphere floated two brilliant golden slimes, which would occasionally bump into the walls of the lanterns, squish against it, then float away in the opposite direction.
“Essence is chock-full with magic. Crafters make weapons, shields, armor… all sorts of things. The government has been buying a ton of the stuff. We just sell it to the highest bidder and take our cut.” Gruff twirled the lantern, sending the two slimes spinning violently.
When had they harvested those? A chill ran up Tad’s spine at the realization. It had been when he was unconscious. These were some cold people. They weren’t strangers to death. Profit was king, even as one of their own lay on the ground, potentially dying. Did they even consider Tad one of their own?
“Is there no way to wake someone who is incapacitated?” Tad asked carefully.
Gruff’s eyes furrowed. “Well, yes, we have a couple resurrection vials, but they’re pretty expensive.”
Tad nodded, suspicions confirmed. His party left him on the ground fighting for his life, while they possessed an item that could have brought him to consciousness, but they hadn’t used it. Because it was expensive. The realization of how close he’d come to dying sunk in. These people wouldn’t have even cared if he died. This wasn’t like the games Tad played. The stakes were real. His mom would’ve never known what happened to him.
“Let’s go get those essences. I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to be.”
Everyone seemed momentarily surprised by Tad’s sudden shift in attitude. But Scar and Blondegirl obliged. They backtracked through the tunnel until they came back to their previous battleground. Above the puddles of slime where each slime had died, hovered a miniature golden slime about the size of Tad’s thumb. Blondegirl harvested the essences quickly, as she dodged the attacks of the green slimes still on the far side of the cavern. Tad just watched. He didn’t feel like fighting them.
Dungeon slaying was brutal. Tad hadn’t expected it to be all fun and games, but he also hadn’t expected this. The monsters were supposed to be the enemy. Teammates were supposed to work together, not be apathetic over teammates’ lives. His party members cared about each other, but that compassion didn’t extend to him. Was he not strong enough? Useful enough? Would they lament his death? If it was a matter of strength, then Tad would get stronger. Strong enough to protect himself. Strong enough to matter.
He’d never be in that position again, unconscious and near death, surrounded by people who didn’t care on which side the coin of his life landed.
Never again.
Chapter 6
The ornate boss door loomed ahead, Tad couldn’t tear his eyes away from it. Was there a hint on the door of what lay within? Arcane symbols scrawled across its surface. He couldn’t shake the feeling that those symbols said exactly what awaited them, but he’d never seen such a complex and elegant script. The words flowed together like a stream, without a break from beginning to end.
Gruff ordered an hour’s rest to recover from their wounds and replenish their magic. Blondegirl healed both Gruff and Scar, but didn’t seem to be very effective at the task. Both the men’s fire and acid burns shrunk, but they hadn’t been fully healed. Tad o
ffered to help, but Gruff told him to save his spells for the boss. Tad didn’t want to expose that he had full mana after such a heated battle, so he stayed quiet.
Tad spent the entire hour agonizing over how to spend his fifteen stat points. He’d leveled up three times in the chaotic slime ambush. Tad stared at the words floating before his eyes.
*Tad Harrington
Rank: Civilian
Level: 5
Health: 10/10
Mana: 12/12
Str: 1
Dex: 1
Con: 1
Mag: 6
Cou: 5
Cha: -9
Points to allocate:15*
Even if Tad put all the points into his magic stat, he didn’t think he could kill the boss by himself. From what the others said, bosses were fifty to a hundred times more difficult than a dungeon monster, with a health pool to match. Gruff said that the boss may not be a slime. If it were a slime, then they were dead. Only a dedicated team of mages could take it down.
Instead, Tad had been leaning toward putting points into his constitution. He had almost died once already, and his bones proved fragile against the rigors of the dungeon. If regular monsters were this hard, then a sneeze from the boss might annihilate him. Increasing his constitution would be doubly effective. He could live through harder blows, but he would also be more effective with his ‘heal other’ spell. But it all depended on how much more health he got for each point of constitution. If it were two per point like his mana had been, then it probably wasn’t a very efficient stat point. Either way, he didn’t have much time left. The hour was almost up.
Tad put one point into his constitution.
