Chapter 28: Running Dry

The crystal at the top of Elias’s staff brightened, and a small burst of flame shot toward the slime crawling across the stone in front of him.

The effect was immediate.

The pale yellow body shrank away from the heat before collapsing into a bubbling puddle that disappeared several seconds later.

Elias barely had time to register the result before turning his staff toward June and casting again. The slime clinging to her shoulders recoiled as the flames spread across its surface, releasing her robes before melting away completely.

"Fire!" Elias shouted. "They’re weak to fire!"

That was all the explanation the others needed.

He sent another spell toward the slime near Gareth, freeing the sword still trapped inside its body, then burned the last creature before it could climb farther up Mara’s legs.

Within seconds, the hallway that had been filled with struggling adventurers and wobbling monsters became quiet again.

For a moment, nobody moved. June leaned forward with both hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath while Gareth inspected the slime coating still clinging to his sword.

Mara immediately began recovering her daggers from the remains, wiping each blade against the cleanest section of stone she could find.

Elias lowered his staff and breathed out slowly.

"Fire," Mara repeated, wiping the sweat from her face. "Good to know."

"Would’ve been nicer to know before they fell on us." June straightened and glared upward.

Every member of the party followed her gaze.

Zion watched from above with considerable amusement. That lesson had apparently been learned.

The ambush itself had lasted less than a minute, but it had disrupted the entire group far more effectively than Zion expected.

They entered Floor 2 moving cautiously and watching the terrain ahead. Now every few steps, someone glanced toward the ceiling too.

Elias seemed particularly pleased with himself. Once he identified the weakness, the slimes disappeared almost effortlessly beneath his fire magic.

He didn’t seem to notice how much mana those four spells had cost him.

However, Zion did.

The Mana Leech Crystal hidden among the mineral deposits nearby continued glowing faintly as the party moved past it.

The drain was small enough that Elias probably wouldn’t feel it immediately, especially while adrenaline was still carrying him through the aftermath of the fight.

June had also remained inside the crystal’s radius for most of the encounter while using healing magic, and her reserves had dropped more than she seemed to realize.

Zion followed eagerly as the party continued deeper.

This time, their progress was much slower. Mara still checked behind every rock formation, but now she also inspected the ceiling before walking beneath narrow sections of stone.

Gareth kept his shield raised while frequently looking over his shoulder to make sure June hadn’t fallen too far behind, and Elias used the crystal on his staff to illuminate darker stretches of the path.

The sulfur field made that caution difficult. Everything looked very similar.

Yellow-green stone curved into more yellow-green stone. Mineral deposits repeated themselves along the walls, sulfur vents appeared at irregular intervals, and thin clouds of vapor frequently obscured landmarks the party might otherwise have used to track their progress.

Zion had deliberately created several routes that branched and reconnected farther ahead, but he hadn’t fully appreciated how confusing the effect would become until he watched someone navigate it from the ground.

The first time Gareth’s party returned to the same sulfur pool, nobody noticed. The second time, Mara slowed.

"Wait."

Gareth stopped. "What?"

She looked toward a jagged mineral formation beside the path.

"I’ve seen that before."

Elias glanced around, squinting his eyes slightly. "They all look like that."

"No. That one."

Mara pointed toward a long crack running through the yellow stone.

"I remember it."

June looked behind them. "Are we going in circles?"

Nobody answered immediately.

Zion smiled to himself. The terrain was working better than expected.

The party eventually chose another passage and continued, though their confidence had clearly suffered.

Mara began leaving small scratches on the stone with one of her daggers whenever they reached an intersection, while Elias occasionally stopped to study the direction of the vapor drifting through the tunnels.

It helped but they still took one wrong turn. By the time they encountered the next cluster of slimes, the party had been inside Floor 2 far longer than they intended.

This time, they spotted the first monster before it could ambush them.

"There," June said, pointing toward the ceiling.

Three heads tilted upward. A Lesser Acid Slime clung between two mineral formations almost directly above the path.

Mara smiled. "Not this time."

Then another slime shifted behind them.

Zion had placed several along the walls near that section, and once the party began searching overhead, they finally noticed how many yellow-green shapes had been hiding inside the terrain.

Elias raised his staff.

"Stay back."

The first fire spell melted the ceiling slime instantly. He aimed the next one at the one on the wall.

A third creature dropped toward Gareth, forcing Elias to cast again before it reached him, while Mara and Gareth struggled to keep two others occupied without letting their weapons sink too deeply into the gelatinous bodies.

The fight went much better than the first encounter but it still cost Elias several more spells. When the last slime finally dissolved, he lowered his staff and leaned slightly against it.

June noticed immediately.

"You all right?"

"Fine." He took another breath and straightened.

Then he stopped. His expression changed. He looked down at his staff before closing his eyes for several seconds.

June frowned. "What?"

"How much mana do you have?"

She blinked.

"What?"

"Check."

June hesitated before closing her eyes as well. A few seconds later, her expression became almost identical to his.

"Not much."

Gareth looked between them. "How much is not much?"

June glanced toward him, slightly panicked. "Less than half."

Elias shook his head.

"I’m even lower."

Mara stared at him.

"But you only casted a few spells."

"I know." Elias looked back along the passage they’d taken, his earlier satisfaction replaced by concentration.

"I should have more. Significantly more."

June nodded slowly.

"So should I."

Gareth’s attention moved across the sulfur field around them.

Zion waited. He wanted to see whether they figured it out.

Elias studied the mineral formations, the sulfur vents, and the yellow crystals scattered among them, but none of the Mana Leech Crystals stood out enough for him to immediately identify the source.

Eventually, Gareth tightened his grip on his shield. "Does it matter what’s causing it?"

Elias looked at him.

"It matters if we want to stop it."

"It matters more if you run out before we find the boss."

That silenced him.

Gareth glanced toward June.

"Could you keep us alive if something went wrong?"

June hesitated. "Maybe."

That was not a reassuring answer. Gareth looked back toward Elias.

"And without fire?"

Elias glanced at the remains of the slimes around them.

"We’d have trouble."

Mara folded her arms.

"That means turn around."

Elias frowned. "But we’re already this far in."

"We don’t know how far this is."

"We could be almost there."

"Or we could walk in circles for another hour."

Elias opened his mouth, then stopped.

Zion found himself agreeing with Mara. That was the smarter choice.

Gareth did too.

"We leave," he finally said, leaving no room for negotiation.

Elias looked toward the unexplored passage ahead for several seconds, clearly unhappy with the decision. He had been the reason they could move through the slimes efficiently at all, and Zion suspected that made turning around especially frustrating.

Still, he eventually nodded. "We need mana potions."

"And maybe something that isn’t a sword," Gareth added, looking at the residue still clinging to his blade.

Mara glanced at her daggers.

"I’m bringing more of these."

"You watched two disappear inside a slime."

"I got them back."

"That isn’t the same thing."

June laughed tiredly as they began retracing their path.

The return trip took less time now that Mara’s marks showed them which intersections they had already crossed, but the party remained cautious until the sulfur passage finally opened back toward the stairs leading to Floor 1.

Elias looked over his shoulder before leaving.

"This floor is horrible."

Zion felt an unreasonable amount of pride.

They didn’t die. They hadn’t even come particularly close. But Floor 2 had forced a competent party that could now clear his first floor comfortably to retreat and return better prepared.

That was almost better than defeating them.

The floor had found a weakness, a way to slow adventurers from arriving at his chamber.

Zion watched the four adventurers cross back through the pasture and disappear through the dungeon entrance.

There was no Defeat Essence because they had chosen to retreat on their own, but he didn’t mind nearly as much as he expected.

But they would come back.

When they did, they would most likely bring mana potions, different weapons, and whatever else they thought would solve the problems they had encountered.

Then Zion would get to see whether it worked. He was already looking forward to it.

As their instance closed, Zion shifted his attention back toward the other parties still moving through Floor 1. Most were familiar by now, or at least familiar enough that he recognized their equipment and fighting styles.

But one group currently fighting the Horned Ram was completely new.

Zion focused on their instance.

Five adventurers were moving around the boss. He barely noticed four of them.

His attention had fixed completely on the fifth member.